The banking lobby’s beating of the drum for a cashless society can seem relentless. You’ll rarely hear anything encouraging about their delivery of cash services unless it is in the context of their obligations under European consumer legislation.
Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, the industry group for Ireland’s big banks, publishes a quarterly “payments monitor” keeping tabs on who pays for what and in what way. Without fail, the emphasis in the headlines is along the lines of “contactless payments rise; cash payments fall”.
But when you dig into the figures, you find that people are still reasonably attached to their local ATM, heading there once every two-and-a-half weeks on average. Last year, they took €12.2 billion out from those ATMs – or close to €235 million every week.
Cash, it seems, is a long way from dead just yet.
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Of course, it suits the sector to play down demand for cash. A cashless society is, for banks, a more profitable one.
Ironically, this comes at a time when US banks are recognising customers’ attachment to the concept of a personal banking service, with JP Morgan most recently announcing plans for a multibillion dollar investment to open 160 new branches across the US. It is far from alone.
If demand for cash was falling as fast as the banks say, you would expect the network of branches and ATMs across the State would be more than sufficient to meet the basic level of service now mandated by the European Union.
However, a report from the Central Bank on Tuesday noted that Ireland’s three big banks have fallen short in the provision of access to cash for their customers.
While the banks do remain “largely in line” with rules that dictate the percentage of the population that must have access to cash within 10km as well as a minimum number of ATMs per 100,000 of population, they have been told they need to invest in cash services in a few areas.
The Border, west and southwest regions fell short on one or more of the criteria.
[ Banks obliged to retain ATMs under legislation passed by SeanadOpens in new window ]
In response, BPFI acknowledged the importance of cash for consumers and businesses, but couldn’t resist noting again that demand for ATMs had fallen in recent years – before accepting the banks’ commitment to providing “reasonable access to cash in line with their obligations under the access to cash legislation”.
The three banks, it said, “are fully committed to providing the relevant ATM and cash service point services as soon as possible”. We shall have to wait and see how long that takes.
