Volumatic welcomes stricter rules on access to cash

Volumatic has expressed its support to the introduction of stricter rules on ensuring banks and building societies offer access to cash for both consumers and small businesses comes into effect on Sept 18.

Announced by the City watchdog in July, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the new rules will require banks and building societies, when considering branch closures, to fill gaps in cash access with measures such as banking hubs, ATMs and Post Office facilities.

The FCA has stated that along with the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), the Bank of England and the Treasury, they are committed to protecting access to cash – particularly for consumers in vulnerable circumstances who rely on it. This is part of their business plan commitment to put consumers' needs first and to ensure they can access the cash they need.

Cash has been a clear winner this summer in terms of usage and access with the number of people using cash for their everyday spending increasing.

Volumatic’s Sales & Marketing Director Mike Severs welcomes this positive news for cash, stating, “We welcome the FCA’s new rules. Cash plays an important role in local communities and businesses, and these new rules from the FCA is something we and others in the industry have been campaigning for, for a long time.

“It’s vital for both businesses and consumers to have easy and local access to cash, and these new rules will ensure cash usage continues to rise, and hopefully encourage more businesses to realise that cash is going to be around for a long time to come as an important and valid method of payment and that they should be welcoming it with open arms.

“As industry leaders, we’ve known for some time that more and more people are using cash again on a daily basis and it’s great to have that confirmed by the recent report from UK Finance.”

While many see mobile and card payments as more convenient, cash remains the second most popular payment method in the UK, after debit cards - with an estimated three million people still relying on it, particularly those on limited incomes.

Cash payments and its protection offers many advantages:

1. Cash helps both businesses and consumers take stock of how much they are spending and helps control their spending more effectively
2. Cash doesn’t incur the same transaction fees as cards, which helps smaller and independent businesses in particular avoid these extra costs
3. The recent global IT outage also showed the importance of cash, providing a vital back-up method of payment and allowing businesses who continue to accept cash to triumph over those who have chosen to go cashless over recent years
4. Cash is also a winner when it comes to protecting personal information - unlike card and digital transactions, which records consumer data and tracks your spending, cash remains completely anonymous, which offers both privacy and protects users from fraud and cyber attacks
5. There are a number of cash handling solutions to help businesses make huge savings - investing in cash handling equipment like the Volumatic CCi.