Pinsent Masons works on pivotal project to help protect cash services

The collaboration, achieved through the Access to Cash Action Group (CAG) marks the beginning of a commitment to ensuring widespread cash and banking access for communities where services are limited.

Under the new model, any community that faces the closure of a core cash service, such as a bank branch or ATM, will have its needs independently assessed by LINK. LINK will then determine whether a solution should be provided to meet that community’s cash needs based on the community as a whole – not just the customers or members of one bank or building society.

Pinsent Masons’ partners Angelique Bret, Angus McFadyen and Andrew Barber have been advising CAG and UK Finance on various aspects of the arrangements.

Commenting on the agreement, lead partner at Pinsent Masons Andrew Barber said:

“In an increasingly online world it’s easy to forget that access to cash is still vital for millions of people and it’s important to ensure that those that need to access it are able to. This unique collaboration is a fantastic step to achieving this and I am looking forward to seeing how the work of the group evolves and the positive impact they will have.”

LINK has already assessed most communities where closures have taken place over the past year and during 2022 they will provide free-to use ATMs across a number of communities, new dedicated cash services across 30 Post Office branches and shared banking hubs across parts of the UK.