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<p>The Government recognises that widespread free access to cash remains extremely
important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. Government
has been engaging and will continue to engage with industry, including LINK, to ensure
that this access is maintained.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has not made any formal
assessment of the potential effect of LINK’s proposals to change the interchange fee
rate on consumers, small businesses, the North Dorset constituency or other rural
communities. However, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), which Government set up
as an independent regulator in 2015 with a statutory objective to ensure that the
UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users, is monitoring developments
within ATM provision, and is conducting ongoing work on the impact that changes may
have. The PSR has recently published a summary of their work to date, which can be
found at https://www.psr.org.uk/psr-focus/the-UK-ATM-network.</p><p> </p><p>The PSR
has committed to using its powers to act should any of the firms it regulates behave
in a way that conflicts with its statutory objectives.</p><p> </p><p>LINK has assured
us and the PSR that industry is committed to maintaining an extensive network of free-to-use
cash machines, and to ensuring that the present geographical spread of ATMs is maintained.
LINK intends to bolster its Financial Inclusion Programme, which ensures the provision
of ATMs in areas of deprivation, where demand would not otherwise make one viable,
and has also committed to protecting all free-to-use ATMs which are a kilometre or
more from the next nearest free-to-use ATM.</p>
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