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The banking sector is being warned it faces penalties if it does not secure free access to cash for the UK population, including businesses, following waves of branch closures over more than a decade.
Hours after Sky News revealed the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was to be given powers to fine banks that fail to provide free access to cash, the Treasury confirmed the guidelines the industry was expected to follow.
The legal framework showed that no person or business should be further than three miles away from facilities to withdraw or deposit cash including a cash machine, otherwise known as an ATM.
It also pledged that no customers should face additional or hidden charges for the services and that if a facility is being withdrawn, a replacement should be put in place before the closure takes place.
The move follows a backlash against the disappearance of physical banking sites with charities, MPs and consumer groups long arguing the vulnerable, particularly the elderly, are being denied face-to-face banking services in their communities.
The issue has dogged the sector since the financial crisis of 2008 when branch closures, as part of cost-cutting measures, gathered pace.
The industry has, in more recent times, blamed the surging use of digital banking services by consumers and businesses for culls to branch numbers.
It argues that many are not being used enough to make them financially viable.
Figures released last month by the Unite union suggested more than 6,000 branches had been lost since 2015 alone, with other sites or post offices taking up the slack.
Industry statistics showed there were 51,272 cash machines in the UK last year, 78% of which were free to use.
The government placed access to deposit and withdrawal facilities under the auspices of the FCA for the first time last year.
While the regulator will be given…
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