FCA: UK Cash Access Coverage by Distance for Q2 2021

The second quarter of 2021 (April to June) provides data on the geographical coverage of cash access points in the UK. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) gather quarterly data on locations, temporary closures, opening hours, and accessibility for branches, ATMs, Post Offices, and cashback vendors. This analysis estimates the proportion of the population living within 2km and 5km of these access points.

Use Cases

• Analyze financial inclusion and cash desertification based on population distance metrics mentioned in the description.
• Monitor trends in bank and building society branch closures based on the quarterly tracking series.
• Compare coverage of free-to-use versus pay-to-use cash access points based on the reported population percentages.
• Assess the role of Post Office and ATM networks in maintaining cash access based on the opposing effects described.

Strengths

• Provides specific population coverage percentages (e.g., 95.7% within 2km, 99.7% within 5km).
• Enables quarterly trend analysis as part of a regular monitoring series.
• Includes multiple cash access point types: bank branches, building societies, ATMs, Post Offices, and cashback vendors.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Distance is measured 'as the crow flies', which may not reflect actual travel routes.

Provenance

Source

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR)

Collection Method

Quarterly data gathering on cash access point locations and characteristics.

Time Range

Q2 2021 (April to June)

Freshness

Data is from Q2 2021; update frequency is quarterly but last update date is unknown.

Geography

United Kingdom