Hundreds of ATMS face axe
HUNDREDS of additional free cash machines face closure across Scotland after the UK’S largest network operator announced it could only protect the current system for the next four years due to a funding row.
Bosses at LINK insisted they were doing “everything they possibly can” to keep automated teller machines (ATMS) open in the communities where they are most needed.
But they admitted efforts to protect cash machines in remote areas would only be in place for four years and some could still close within that time.
LINK, the UK’S main cash machine network, is cutting the fee paid to operators from 25p to 20p per withdrawal over four years, but previously unveiled proposals to protect ATMS one kilometre or more from the next free machine.
It has led to worries that more than half of Scotland’s 5,300 free-to-use ATMS could disappear.
However chairman Sir Mark Boleat admitted these measures would only plug the gap for the next few years, with “bigger issues” looming if the number of people using ATMS continues to plummet.
He also appeared to predict widespread closures in cities, adding: “There are some city centres with 50 pay-to-use ATMS. We don’t think the public will be disadvantaged if that number falls to 40, or even to 30 or to 20.”
Sir Mark said cash use had fallen by 30 per cent in the last 10 years, and was projected to drop by another 40% in the coming decade.
And he insisted “falling demand” meant that even protected ATMS could close in the next four years, despite a freeze on the fee paid to operators and additional financial incentives for machines in vulnerable areas.
He said: “If transactions fall by 40% in the next 10 years, 30% or 40%, there are bigger issues and we need to address those. Our own data shows consistently this year transactions have fallen by five per cent below last year.”
In evidence to Holyrood’s economy committee, LINK estimated that up to 11 per cent of the UK’S cash machines may close as a result of the changes to operator fees. But some estimates have put the figure as high as 18%.
Under questioning from MSPS, Sir Mark was unable to provide any breakdown of the impact on Scotland. But he said 221 ATMS would be protected from fee changes north of the Border.
It came as Professor Russel Griggs, chairman of the new South of Scotland Economic Partnership, told the committee there is no evidence bank branch closures have a longterm effect on communities.
RBS is currently pushing forward with plans to shut at least 52 branches across the country, with a further 10 under review.
Professor Griggs said work he had carried out suggested that while there was initially a “heavy impact”, communities moved on and found other ways of doing things.
He said: “So I think it probably has a short-term effect but the evidence that I saw as I went around and visited probably 20 or 30 places across the whole of the UK looking at this, is that it settles down again and people go back to doing what they used to do but just in a different way.”
Thomas Docherty, public affairs manager for consumer organisation Which?, said: “There hasn’t been a proper study done by anybody of what those longer-term impacts would be.”
Falling demand meant even protected ATMS could close