Let's hope new post office banking hubs are a success

BUSINESS FOCUS: By David Richardson, Highlands and Islands development manager for the Federation of Small Businesses

As local economies awaken after the long winter lockdown, so the issues that occupied our minds before the pandemic are bubbling up once more. One such is access to cash.

The world is changing rapidly and the use of credit and debit cards and other innovative payment methods is growing, but that certainly doesn’t mean that cash is dead. In fact it remains remarkably popular in Caithness and Sutherland, where many locals – and especially the elderly – still like it, where visitors still use it, and where the alternatives are not always practical for seasonal businesses.

Moreover, the Financial Conduct Authority recently found that five million people in the UK remain dependent on cash, that during the pandemic 15 per cent of adults struggled to cope without access to bank branches and ATMs, and that 16 per cent suffered as businesses stopped or encouraged customers to use contactless or digital payments.

The widespread closure of north Highland banks and ATMs has meant that accessing cash has become ever harder, and privately operated ATMs can be unreliable. Indeed, in at least one tourist town ATMs have run out of cash altogether on busy days, leaving locals, visitors and businesses feeling immensely frustrated.

However, all is not lost, for one innovative new scheme, supported by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and being trialled in selected towns across the UK until October, might provide the answer: post office banking hubs.

Operated by the Post Office and serving all the customers of major banks under one roof, trial bank hubs have been set up in dedicated high street retail spaces to enable customers to access cash and undertake other basic financial transactions such as cash withdrawals and consumer and business deposits. But bank hubs won’t be the answer everywhere, so other solutions are also being tried, including further development of post offices, pop-up post offices, "cashback" from local stores and new free-to-use ATMs.

Let’s hope that the trial is a success and that post office bank hubs work – but, whatever happens, many in Caithness and Sutherland will be praying that cash remains in use and accessible for many years to come.

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