Treasury publishes Cash Access Policy Statement

The Treasury published a Cash Access Policy Statement on 18 August 2023, setting out the government's policy on access to cash deposit and withdrawal services for relevant personal and business current accounts across the UK¹. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its own statement on the same day, setting out its overall approach to cash access in the UK, including how it had considered the Treasury's policy statement, as well as next steps².

The Treasury statement was published under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 as amended by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 29 June 2023². The Treasury is required to publish the statement under that legislation¹. It is intended to inform the FCA's approach, including on what constitutes "reasonable provision" of cash access services in the UK, as part of the regulator's statutory responsibility for seeking to ensure reasonable provision of cash access services¹.

The FCA's statement followed the new powers given to it by the 2023 Act, in particular to act where it finds or anticipates shortages in cash access services that would have a significant impact on local areas². The Act requires the FCA to seek to ensure the reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit services for personal and business current accounts across the UK².

The FCA's own figures, from its Financial Lives 2022 survey, found that 6% of adults in the UK used cash to pay for everything or most things in the 12 months since May 2021, rising to 9% among those in vulnerable circumstances². Its data shows 95.0% of the UK population are within 1 mile of a free-to-use cash withdrawal point, such as cash machines, Post Office branches or bank or building society branches, and 99.7% are within 3 miles of a free-to-use cash access point².

Why it matters for households

The policy statement concerns access to cash deposit and withdrawal services for personal and business current accounts across the UK¹. The FCA's figures indicate that a minority of adults rely on cash for all or most payments, and that reliance is higher among people in vulnerable circumstances². The FCA has said its powers focus on access to cash rather than wider banking services and do not prevent bank branches from closing, though its rules have an impact where closures leave significant gaps in communities' cash services².

What happens next

The FCA consulted in December 2023 on rules proposed under the new powers in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023; that consultation closed in February 2024². In May 2024 the Treasury announced the designation of the banks and building societies subject to the new rules, and the designation of an operator of cash access coordination arrangements². The FCA published its access to cash rules on 24 July 2024, and they came into force on 18 September 2024². The FCA has said it previously intended to publish an evaluation of the access to cash regime in 2027, but has paused that evaluation because the government has commissioned an independent Review of Access to Banking Services, expected to report in October 2026; the FCA says it will set out next steps after the Review publishes its findings².

More on how financial regulation in the UK works, access to cash and the Financial Conduct Authority is covered in the site's guides.