What we do

Cash Access UK is owned and funded by nine of the UK's biggest banking providers: Bank of Ireland UK, Barclays, Danske Bank, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group, Santander, TSB and Virgin Money. These firms have come together to provide shared services available to all their customers.

A Banking Hub is a shared banking space on the high street. Hubs offer a counter service operated by the Post Office, where customers of all major banks and building societies can carry out regular cash transactions, Monday to Friday. The Hubs also offer a Community Banker service where customers can talk to their own banking provider about more complicated banking issues. The Community Bankers work on rotation, with a different banking provider available on each day of the week. Community Bankers are usually provided by the banks or building society with the most customers in the local area.

You can view the services available from Community bankers from the Community Banker Services page.

Our nine Member firms cover the vast majority of personal and business customers. Cash Access UK is open to any bank or building society to join as long as they meet certain criteria. Please speak to your banking provider for more information. 

Cash is still important to millions of people in the UK. Between 5 and 6 million adults say they rely on cash in their day-to-day lives. Digital or online solutions don’t yet work for everyone all the time. We've found that Banking Hubs can make a real difference to individuals, small businesses and the communities they live in.

Yes. Business customers are welcome to use the counter services to make cash withdrawals, cash and cheque deposits and other cash services including floats and coinage.

Opening a Banking Hub takes an average of 12 months from start to finish. These are the steps involved:

• Find a suitable property that meets our requirements. These include size, condition and location.

• Negotiate terms with the landlord.

• Once an offer is agreed, solicitors carry out the legal work so the lease can be signed. We may need to get planning approval from the local authority before we work with our architects on the layout and design. Where the building is listed or in a conservation area, we make sure our design and the building work complement the area.

• Post Office appoints a Banking Hub Operator and the bankers identify Community Bankers so they are ready to serve customers on the day we open.
• Carry out final checks to make sure everything is working so we can open the doors.

LINK, the UK’s cash machine network, decides where new services are needed. LINK is an independent, regulated company with many years' experience in assessing communities' cash needs. LINK reviews the impact of every proposed branch closure by our Member firms. A community can also ask to LINK to carry out an assessment of the community if they feel they need better access to cash.  

Our priority is to open a permanent Banking Hub as quickly as possible where one has been recommended by LINK.

We are currently piloting temporary Banking Hubs in a few communities while plans for the community’s permanent Hub progress and we will be evaluating the success of these.

A temporary Banking Hub, which could be provided in a community library for example, will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and on a case-by-case basis. This could be in communities where it is likely to take more than 12 months to deliver the permanent Hub and there is a suitable temporary location that could be quickly set up.

The services provided in a temporary Hub are the same as those provided in the permanent one, just in a different location.