The Government recognises that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses across the UK. Government has been engaging and will continue to engage with the regulators and industry, including LINK (the scheme that runs the UK\u2019s ATM system), to ensure that it is maintained.<\/p>
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The Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in 2015 with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK\u2019s payment systems work in the interests of their users. As part of this, the PSR is closely monitoring developments within ATM provision and has committed to using its powers to act should LINK behave in a way that conflicts with its statutory objectives.<\/p>
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Regarding bank branches, the decision to close a branch is a commercial issue for the management team of the bank involved. However, Government believes it is important the impact on communities must be understood, considered and mitigated where possible.<\/p>
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The Government supports the industry\u2019s Access to Banking Standard which commits banks to ensure personal and business customers are better informed about branch closures and the reasons for them closing. It also helps customers to understand 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>
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Government also considers it important that all customers, wherever they live and especially those who are vulnerable, can still access over the counter services. That is why we support the Post Office\u2019s Banking Framework Agreement, which enables 99% of banks\u2019 personal and 95% of banks\u2019 small business customers to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1091", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bates"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Bates"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-08-02", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-08-02T12:09:17.51Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "14"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-07-24", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Bank Services: Rural Areas"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure continued access to (1) free automated teller machines, and (2) bank branches, particularly in rural communities.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4564", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bird"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Bird"} ], "uin" : "HL9832"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }