Recommendation 8

We welcome industry-led initiatives, such as LINK’s Financial Inclusion Programme, to provide free access to cash via free-to-use ATMs in the most rural and deprived areas of the UK. This is especially important in Scotland considering the physical and digital connectivity challenges it faces. However, it is unacceptable that an issue of such importance should be left to voluntary agreements which ultimately leaves them vulnerable and reduces certainty over the future of free access to cash in Scotland. Future legislation should therefore complement the industry- led initiatives, such as the Financial Inclusion Programme, and build on these to guarantee free access to cash for as long as it is needed.