Resisting new cashless society

We appear to be moving towards a cashless society, signposted by the fact that 340 cash machines are disappearing from the high street every month.

Covid has caused an upsurge in contactless payments and the use of paper money and coins is, consequently, on the decline.

The UK also has the highest number of cashless payments in Europe, cash is used in less than 10% of transactions.

Banks and building societies too, are seeing a reduction in their number. Since the mid1990s, the number of branches in the UK has been falling steadily - between 2012 and 2020, the total number of bank and building society branches in the UK fell by 28%. Already this year, some 423 banks and building society branches have either been axed or put on notice of closure.

Digital banking seems to be the preferred direction of the banking industry, however, according to a survey, two thirds of Brits do not trust that they are safe to conduct all their banking online.

But the fall in the footfall of people using banks and the need to increase profits are also factors in their shrinkage.

One of the adverse effects of the closure of local banks is that customers are obliged to travel to a branch further away. Not all customers have access to a computer or those that do are dead set against undertaking

online banking.

But the banks have set their course in spite of the concerns of technophobes and older customers who despair at the inexorable march towards the end of conventional banking. Michael Smith

Picture: Hazle McCormack Young LLP/Chartered Architects How the William Harvey’s upgraded A&E unit could look