Four new Banking Hubs confirmed following community requests

Six locations to benefit from new deposit services to support businesses.

Four more communities have been confirmed as locations for banking hubs, and six will receive support for business deposits following LINK’s latest review of cash access.

As part of a landmark agreement between the banks and building societies, following the closure of any bank branch, LINK, the UK’s Cash Access and ATM network, will identify whether a community requires further cash services. Also, any community without branches can contact LINK directly and ask to be assessed for support. Today’s hubs are the first to come directly from community requests.

LINK is delighted to confirm the following locations have been recommended to benefit from new shared Banking Hubs:

• Bury Park Bedfordshire
• Haslemere, Surrey
• Prestatyn, Denbighshire
• Welling, South East London

Today’s new hubs follow requests from residents in Luton, Haslemere Town Council, MP for Vale of Clywd James Davies and Teresa O’Neill OBE, Leader of the London Borough of Bexley Council.

To date, there are two Banking Hubs open in Cambuslang (South Lanarkshire) and Rochford (Essex) and following today’s announcement, 27 further Hubs are being delivered collectively by the banks and are planned to open in the coming months.

Six new deposit services

Elsewhere, LINK has confirmed that six additional towns will receive increased support for depositing cash. We know some communities have a high use of for cash and being able to deposit cash locally is important for local businesses and consumers. Where we see a deposit need in a community that doesn’t qualify for a banking hub we are working with Cash Access UK to pilot different innovative solutions to meet that need, and this will help create cash solutions that can be used in similar communities in the future. These six locations are:

• Bingley, West Yorkshire
• Finchley, North London
• Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
• Melksham, Wiltshire
• Plympton, Devon
• Sandbach, Cheshire

John Howells, CEO, LINK: “We’re really pleased to confirm that Welling, Haslemere, Prestatyn and Bury Park in Luton will receive a banking hub and we hope more communities will apply. We know more people are banking online, but there are still millions of people who rely on cash. Banking Hubs are proving exceptionally popular with consumers and helping to breathe life back into high streets.”

Natalie Ceeney, Chair, Cash Action Group: “The community request scheme is a vital part of the process assessing the needs of communities, and I am delighted to see that it’s leading to new services being set up."

“The creation of new deposit services will also be very welcome. Time and time again, businesses have told me that the inability to run out to the bank at lunchtime to refill their tills or at the end of the day to bank takings is one of the reasons why it’s easier to stop accepting cash. Local deposit solutions are vital to keeping cash viable in local communities.”