Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
FCA To Change Laws On Cash Usage
Vicky Parry
14th Dec 2023
Over at MoneyMagpie we have been singing the praises of cash for some time. As of today FCA has changed the laws around cash usage.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed new rules to maintain reasonable access to cash for personal and business customers across the UK. This follows new powers granted to the FCA by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.
Under the FCA’s proposals, designated banks and building societies will need to assess gaps in access to cash. These assessments need to take into account local factors such as demographics and transport. Where firms identify gaps, they will need to act to address these needs.
Sheldon Mills, Executive Director of Consumers and Competition at the FCA said: ‘We know that, while there is an increasing shift to digital payments, over 3 million consumers still rely on cash – particularly people who may be vulnerable – as well as many small businesses. It’s important that we support consumers impacted by recent innovations.
‘These proposals set out how banks and building societies will need to assess and plug gaps in local cash provision. This will help manage the pace of change and ensure that people can continue to access cash if they need it.’
Why Is Cash So Important?
MoneyMagpie CEO Jasmine Birtles says: “There are two main reasons why people are going back to cash: one is the cost of living crisis where cash is much better for budgeting and the other reason is that there is a growing movement in this country, and in other countries, to demand that cash be used again in shops and other retailers. There is an increasing realisation across the country that going digital only is dangerous, that it’s too easy for ’them’ (government, big tech, big business) to track everything we are doing with digital payments. No one wants yet more surveillance!
“There is also the realisation among retailers that, if we go digital-only, it will be expensive because companies like Visa and Mastercard will be able to charge retailers whatever they like for processing payments.
“Going cashless is also unsafe for the nation. It’s important to have cash as a back-up in case of a cyber attack or other reason for the digital systems to go down. Countries like Sweden which has gone cashless have made themselves and their economies vulnerable to attack by taking away their physical money.”
What are your views on cash? Let us know in the comments below.
Great news, rural areas are losing all their bank branches and trying to force people to bank online but many people are just not comfortable with this and rely on cash.
I agree with the points made in your article. Ultimately, the best support for cash comes from its continued use by the public – we all get a vote on this every time we make a purchase. If a business won’t accept cash then we need to be willing to walk away and let them know why.
I agree with the comments above and feel that the older generation are being excluded.