LINK, the UK cash machine network, is pleased to announce that since beginning to implement its financial inclusion programme in 2007, over 400 new free-to-use cash machines have been installed in lower income communities previously without a free ATM. Over 150 further sites have already been identified, meaning that a total of well over 1 million people will have been provided a new free-to-use cash machine in their local community as a result of this initiative.
Edwin Latter, LINK ATM Scheme Director, said: “Each of LINK’s 47 member banks, building societies and independent operators is contributing to this programme. As well as benefiting local residents, a free-to-use cash machine can make a massive difference to a community because money withdrawn is usually spent within the local area, helping to sustain local business and the local economy.”
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LINK Financial Inclusion Programme
The LINK financial inclusion programme was agreed in December 2006 and set out in a report by an ATM Working Group chaired by Treasury Committee Chairman John McFall MP, and established by former Treasury Minister Ivan Lewis MP. Combining LINK and government data, the ATM Working Group found that the large majority of communities, and in particular lower-income communities, were already well served by free-to-use cash machines. However, a small but significant number of lower-income communities had either only pay-to-use machines or no ATMs at all. The LINK financial inclusion programme provides incentives for new free-to-use cash machines to be installed in these areas. The full report of the Working Group may be found on HM Treasury’s website at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/financial_services/financial_inclusion/financial_inclusion_atmworkinggroup.cfm
About LINK
The LINK Scheme connects almost every cash machine in the UK, free-to-use and pay-to-use. The LINK network is the busiest ATM transaction switch in the world. The LINK Scheme brings together the banks, building societies and other institutions that issue cards and the operators of the more than 64,000 UK cash machines that make up the LINK network.
LINK processes between 200 and 250 million transactions a month and, at its busiest, it processes over one million transactions an hour. The LINK network has 47 members and there are more than 130 million LINK cards in circulation from 36 card issuers.
