Anne Marie Morris MP recently met with Cash Access UK (CAUK) and UK Finance to discuss the current rollout of Banking Hubs in Dawlish and Teignmouth and the application of the model more widely.
A Banking Hub is a shared banking service which provides cash and banking services to customers of different banks and building societies in one location. These Hubs have the potential to deliver significant benefits for local areas they are located in, providing both access to cash and community bankers who can support customers accessing wider banking services. CAUK are a not-for-profit company established by 10 large high street banking providers, and are the designated body for implementing Banking Hubs once a need has been identified by LINK. UK Finance are an industry body for the finance industry, representing more than 300 firms across the financial sector including the high street banks who established CAUK.
The Member of Parliament for Newton Abbot wanted to understand in greater detail the funding model of CAUK, how the banking hub criteria was formulated, and what sort of services and third-party community involvement can be expected from banking hubs - beyond simply providing a place to deposit and take out cash.
Speaking more specifically on the individual cases in Dawlish and Teignmouth, Anne Marie said: "Sorting out the banking hubs for Dawlish and Teignmouth has been a bit of a roller coaster! It’s still early days and Cash Access UK are still finding their feet. Finding the permanent hub location has been challenging to say the least.
The current criteria for rolling out Banking Hubs and also the expectation of services that Hubs should be providing is inadequate. We need to ensure that towns are not left bankless when the last branch leaves because we have an unrealistic 12 month time frame to find a permanent location for a Banking Hub. Cash Access UK must start parallel planning when notice is first given, for both a permanent and temporary Hub location. Leaving a town without any access to banking facilities and services is not acceptable."