Afotimber
Thursday 13 July 2023 3:39 pm
Westminster and the City remained London’s biggest centres for cash withdrawals but saw a near halving in the amount of cash withdrawn over the past four years.
According to figures from LINK, which operates the interbank network, the amount of cash withdrawals from the City and Westminster fell to £55m in May 2023, 49 per cent lower than the £108m withdrawn in May 2019.
West Ham was the next on the list, with over £30m in cash withdrawals in May 2023. This was down over 34 per cent on last year.
Twickenham, Putney and Wimbledon were among areas in London with the least being withdrawn, with around £8.5m being taken out in each. Croydon South saw the least withdrawals in the capital with £6.4m, down a third on last year.
Cash usage has been falling across the country in recent years as consumers increasingly turn to digital forms of payment.
The value of transactions at ATMs fell from £116bn in 2019 to £83bn across 2022. This looked likely to fall slightly as £40bn had been withdrawn by the end of June this year.
Falling cash usage has reflected an exodus of major banks from the UK’s high streets. More than half of the UK’s bank branches have been wiped out since 2015, according to consumer group Which?.
Despite the decrease in cash usage, many areas – particularly more deprived areas – still saw continued cash usage. Data from Nationwide released earlier this year showed an increase in cash withdrawn from Nationwide ATMs as customers sought to use cash to help them budget.
17 of the 20 areas which saw the smallest reduction in cash usage were in the most deprived quintile of the country, seeing falls of under 20 per cent.
In contrast, of the 20 regions which saw the steepest decline in the value of cash withdrawn, none were in the most deprived quintile and eight were in the least.
John Howells, chief executive of Link: “Five million people still rely on cash every day and deprivation is the biggest single indicator of cash dependency.
“There is evidence that increasing numbers of people have been using cash as a budgeting tool during the cost-of-living crisis…We must manage the transition to digital carefully to ensure that millions of vulnerable consumers are not left behind,” he continued.