Payment choice

the cost of cash artificially high, as part of their push towards making the UK a “cashless” society.

In any event, the absence of bank branches gives businesses a headache both in relation to getting cash for their floats and depositing their cash takings.

Post Offices – and there are still around 11,500 of them in the UK – thankfully offer one solution for cash withdrawals and deposits, but more cash friendly infrastructure is required to support both businesses and the public.

Bank hubs – facilities jointly staffed by all the significant UK banks – have been suggested as a solution, but their deployment has been painfully slow, even by Amazon Go standards.

What is required to ensure cash continues to work for both businesses and the public is cooperative action between major retail groups – including Tesco and Sainsbury’s; cash management organisations, such as Brinks, G4S and Loomis; the Post Office; and non-bank ATM operators.

Working together, these parties can ensure that convenient 24-hour cash withdrawal and deposit facilities are available in every significant community around the UK.

As for the former high street banks, they will have to pay fair prices for the cash services their customers continue to want to use, prices regularly set under the auspices of an entirely independent cash regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority would support the regulator as necessary to ensure banks meet their newly established obligations.

An organisation called the UK Cash Supply Alliance has been set up to promote the structural changes needed to guarantee both the public and businesses get the cash services they want and deserve.

Meantime, the UK Payment Choice Alliance is working to help ensure the UK gets a Payment Choice Act, either under this government or the next.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should be aware that the YouGov research revealed Conservative voters are even stronger supporters of payment choice than those favouring other parties. Introducing a Payment Choice Act, therefore, surely makes sense for someone hoping to govern beyond 2025.

About the author

Ron

There are a variety of reasons why Amazon Go has not been a planet engulfing success – and one was the restriction imposed on how those using the stores could pay.