Community Cash Advisory Panel

The Community Cash Advisory Panel Has Now Concluded its Work

In 2022, we began to assess the impact of bank branch closures on communities. Working with set Criteria agreed by banks and building societies, we determine where new shared cash services such as banking hubs are needed. The Community Cash Advisory Panel was established in 2023 to oversee our work on cash access in communities under a voluntary scheme.

In September 2024, this work transitioned to a regulated framework under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). LINK was designated as a Coordination Body for assessing cash access in communities and the Panel continued to oversee what we did under the new regulatory framework. Now that we are more than twelve months into the regulated framework the Panel’s work has ended.

LINK’s assessments of access to cash in communities will still be overseen and scrutinised by the LINK Board as well as by independent audit consultants. LINK’s Independent Assessor will continue to play a key role in the process. LINK is also subject to direct regulatory scrutiny by the FCA which supervises our work as a Coordination Body. Insight and consumer challenge will now come directly from the Financial Services Consumer Panel as well as from consumers themselves. Consumers can ask LINK to look at cash access in their communities as well as appeal a decision that we have made through our assessment work. You can find out more here.

The Community Cash Advisory Panel’s contributions influenced key improvements to our work, and its legacy will continue to shape access to cash in the UK.

The Panel published 9 opinions on the effectiveness of our criteria. The final opinion was published in December 2025.