LINK, the UK cash machine network, welcomes today's announcement by the Bank of England of proposals to increase the quality and supply of five pound notes.
Over 70% of the notes in circulation come from cash machines, and this proportion is expected to rise to over 80% over the next few years. The banks and ATM operators that make up the LINK network have already therefore been discussing how to ensure consumers can get more five pound notes from cash machines.
Edwin Schooling Latter, Managing Director of LINK said "We have clear evidence that most consumers would like to be able get a couple of fivers when they use a cash machine, and some would like the option of withdrawing multiples of five, e.g. £15 or £25. While not every cash machine will be able to dispense five pound notes because they do not have the space, these reforms will enable more ATMs to dispense clean, good-condition five pound notes."
Barclays, Lloyds Group, and HSBC already have some cash machines dispensing £5 notes. In Northern Ireland, Northern Bank also has £5 dispensing ATMs. A number of other banks are currently conducting trials and preparatory work to do the same. Independent operator Bank Machine has trialled some ATMs which dispense only £5s.
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Media Enquiries:
For more information please contact Jemma Smith at the LINK Press Office.
Email: press@ukpayments.org.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7711 6340/020 7711 6368
Mobile: +44 (0) 7811 113 075
About LINK
LINK is the UK's cash machine network. Virtually every cash machine in the UK is connected to LINK, and LINK provides the only route through which debit card and ATM card issuers can offer their customers reliable nationwide access to cash. All the UK's significant debit and ATM card issuers are LINK members.
Cash machine operators who want to deploy ATMs in the UK must join LINK in order to be able to offer cash to the 130 million LINK-enabled cards in circulation. LINK cash withdrawals can exceed £10 billion per month in value and at its busiest, LINK processes over 1 million transactions an hour.
The number of cash machines in the UK has grown from 36,000 in 2001 to 64,000 today. The number of free-to-use ATMs is at an all-time high of over 38,500. Almost 97% of all ATM cash withdrawals by UK cardholders in the UK are made free of charge.
www.link.co.uk
