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<p>The Treasury has no made no such assessments. The decision to open and close branches
remains a commercial judgement for banks. However, the impact of closures on communities
must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible.</p><p> </p><p>The industry’s
Access to Banking Standard, launched in May 2017, commits banks to ensure personal
and business customers are better informed about branch closures and the reasons for
them closing, along with the options they have locally to continue to access banking
services, including specialist assistance for customers who need more help. The Access
to Banking Standard is monitored and enforced by the independent Lending Standards
Board.</p><p> </p><p>99% of personal and 95% of banks’ business customers are now
able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post
Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches. At Autumn Budget 2017, my predecessor
wrote to the Post Office and UK Finance to ask them to raise public awareness of the
banking services available at the Post Office for individuals and SMEs. I look forward
to receiving their proposals later this month.</p><p> </p><p>More widely, the Government
remains committed to supporting SMEs’ access to the finance they need to grow and
expand, and has: established the British Business Bank to make finance markets work
better for small businesses; supported challenger banks; introduced a bespoke regime
for peer-to-peer lending; and made structural interventions such as the Bank Referral
Scheme and the SME credit data sharing scheme.</p>
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