Deal renewed for banking customers to use Post Office branches

theguardian.com:

Customers of the UK’s biggest banks and building societies will be able to continue to use Post Office counters to pay in and withdraw cash, after an important arrangement was renewed.

Following months of negotiations, the Post Office has announced that it will continue to offer basic banking services to most UK bank customers for a further three years. Had the negotiations failed, it would have left millions of people without reasonable access to cash withdrawals.

The service, described as a “lifeline” for the millions of people and small businesses that rely on cash, allows customers at 30 banks and building societies to deposit cheques/cash at Post Office counters. The new agreement will see this remain until at least the end of 2025.

The new deal, which covers three years from next January, is seen as key in securing the future acceptance of cash. Almost 98% of the population live within three miles of a Post Office, which tend to have longer opening hours than banks, with about 4,000 open at weekends.

In December, the consumer group Which? claimedthat almost half of the UK’s bank branches had been lost, or scheduled for closure, since 2015. The closures have left a number of towns without a functioning bank. Many smaller communities have lost access to free-to-use ATMs.

More than £3bn a month of cash is deposited and withdrawn every month from the Post Office’s 11,500 branches.

Nick Read, chief executive at the Post Office, said: “This agreement provides a continued lifeline to the millions of people and small businesses that rely on cash nationwide. It highlights the unique and vital role that the country’s Post Offices play in local communities and economies.

“While banks are cutting their branch networks, Post Offices