Banking Hubs: Rural Areas
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 58290 on Banking Hubs: Market Towns, what steps is her Department taking to ensure LINK’s criteria sufficiently reflect the banking needs of (a) digitally excluded, (b) elderly and (c) disabled residents in rural areas.
Answered by Emma Reynolds
The Government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups or face challenges using alternative payment methods. The Government also understands the importance of face-to-face banking to communities and high streets across the UK, including those in rural communities, and is committed to championing sufficient access for all as a priority.
In September 2024, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is independent of Government, introduced regulatory rules for access to cash.
The FCA’s rules require LINK to consider a range of factors in their assessments which will account for challenges in cash access faced by market towns. This includes travel times to nearby cash facilities and local population demographics, including the levels of vulnerability and the number of elderly people within the community.
However, it is important to note that the FCA’s rules, and the LINK assessment criteria which it oversees, pertain only to access to cash, and the FCA has no power to require LINK to consider a community's access to banking needs. Any decision to change LINK’s independent assessment criteria to consider access to banking is a matter for LINK and the financial services sector.
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