FCA: UK Cash Access Coverage by Distance for Q2 2022

96.5% of the UK population lived within 2km of a cash access point in Q2 2022, according to quarterly monitoring by the Financial Conduct Authority. The dataset, sourced from the Government Digital Service, provides a geographical overview of cash access points including bank branches, ATMs, and Post Offices, tracking closures and availability. It focuses on coverage within 2km and 5km distances for the UK population.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in financial service accessibility based on quarterly changes in branch and ATM counts.
• Model geographic disparities in cash access based on population coverage within 2km and 5km distances.
• Assess the impact of Post Office network changes on rural cash access based on the described coverage data.

Strengths

• Provides specific population coverage percentages (e.g., 96.5% within 2km) for Q2 2022.
• Tracks quarterly changes in infrastructure, noting a 2.1% decrease in PCA bank branches between Q1 and Q2 2022.
• Covers multiple cash access point types including branches, ATMs, and the Post Office network.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), via Government Digital Service.

Collection Method

Quarterly data gathering on locations of cash access points, supplemented with annual cashback data.

Time Range

Q2 (April to June) 2022, with comparisons to Q1 2022.

Freshness

Quarterly monitoring, with data for Q2 (April-June) 2022.

Geography

United Kingdom.