Recommendation 9

The FCA and PSR are working with the University of Bristol to provide a map of access to cash across the country and the different ways in which cash can be accessed, including bank branches, post offices, cash machines and cash back from shops.22 This is being used during the Covid-19 pandemic to identify areas where access to cash might be threatened, for example by the temporary closure of shops. The PSR told us this is teaching them the value of such data with the possibility, in the future, of linking it to measures of vulnerability, social deprivation and other factors.23 But this work cannot happen fast enough; the week before we took evidence the TSB announced large scale closures in its bank branch network, some in deprived urban areas.24