Recently, our Chief Executive Officer wrote to Cash Access UK to highlight growing concerns surrounding the continued decline of cash infrastructure across the UK and Ireland and the wider impact this is having on businesses, communities and consumers who continue to rely on cash every day.
As one of the largest independent cash management companies in Europe, Pivotal operates at the heart of the cash ecosystem. Supporting thousands of businesses and financial institutions daily, alongside operating approximately 2,000 ATMs across the UK and Ireland, we see first-hand how decisions surrounding cash access translate into operational reality for communities across the country.
The purpose of the correspondence was to raise what we believe are important and increasingly urgent concerns. While we recognise that the challenges surrounding cash access are complex and that Cash Access UK is well intentioned, the pace at which bank branches, ATMs and cash infrastructure continue to disappear is outstripping the delivery of meaningful replacement services.
Cash is not simply a legacy payment method. For many people, businesses and local economies, it is essential. It plays a critical role in financial inclusion, budgeting, resilience and accessibility, particularly for vulnerable individuals, SMEs and communities with limited digital access. It also remains the only universal fallback when digital payment systems experience outages, cyber incidents or technical failures.
Despite the significance of these concerns, we did not receive a response to the correspondence. We have taken the decision to publish the open letter below to encourage wider discussion around the future of cash within the UK. We believe there needs to be greater urgency, stronger protections and more meaningful action to ensure cash remains accessible, usable and protected for the future.
Should you wish to discuss this matter further or engage with Pivotal regarding cash access, ATM infrastructure or the future of cash within the UK, please contact Ashleigh McClean at ashleigh.mcclean@pivotalsecplus.com.
Good afternoon,
By way of context, I am Chief Executive Officer of Pivotal, the largest independent cash management company in Europe. Pivotal employs over 1,200 colleagues across the UK and Ireland, operates approximately 550 cash in transit vehicles, runs 18 cash centres and wholly owns and operates circa 2,000 ATMs across the UK and Ireland. These ATMs represent a critical additional cash distribution channel, particularly in communities underserved by traditional banking infrastructure. Collectively, we support many thousands of businesses, retailers and financial institutions every day and sit at the operational core of the UK and Irish cash ecosystem.
At the outset, I want to be clear that I recognise Cash Access UK is well intentioned and that the challenges surrounding cash access are complex. However, good intentions are not sufficient when outcomes continue to lag materially behind the pace at which cash infrastructure is being withdrawn. From our perspective, Cash Access UK is failing to keep pace with operational and market reality. Bank and ATM closures continue at a speed that significantly outstrips the delivery of replacement services, particularly banking hubs. In many communities, prolonged gaps emerge between service withdrawal and the provision of viable alternatives. Where branches, ATMs and other access points are removed or allowed to decline, the impact is immediate. For cash reliant consumers, SMEs and local economies, this translates directly into higher costs, reduced access, diminished liquidity and constrained economic activity.
This contradiction becomes more pronounced when considering what we believe is the core issue, not simply access to cash infrastructure, but the continued right to use cash as a payment method. Cash is not a legacy preference, it is critical national infrastructure. It underpins large parts of the UK economy, particularly retail, hospitality, leisure, personal services, care services, charity fundraising, events, tourism and the micro business economy. It plays a disproportionate role for older citizens, vulnerable individuals, those with limited digital access, and communities with poor connectivity. For many SMEs, cash remains central to liquidity management, cost control and day to day operational resilience.
At a time of sustained cost of living pressure, cash also plays an increasingly important role in household budgeting. Many individuals and families rely on cash precisely because it provides immediacy, visibility and discipline allowing people to manage finite weekly or monthly budgets without the opacity, frictionless overspend or delayed consequences associated with digital payments. For lower income households in particular, cash is a practical financial management tool, not a lifestyle choice.
Beyond inclusion and privacy, cash is essential to systemic and national resilience. Digital payment systems, however advanced, are not fail safe. Outages, cyber incidents, technical failures, and network disruptions are neither hypothetical nor rare. When electronic payment systems fail, cash and in particular the ATM network is the only universal, immediate, and trusted fallback mechanism. Allowing cash usage or distribution infrastructure to erode without firm safeguards materially weakens the UK’s payments resilience and contingency posture.
For all of these reasons, we believe the right to use cash should be explicitly enshrined in UK law, with retailers and payment accepting entities legally obliged to accept cash.
Pivotal is a core operator across cash processing, transportation, and ATM provision, with real time insight into how policy decisions translate into operational reality for communities across the UK every day.
The stakes surrounding cash access and usage are high, not only for vulnerable consumers and cash dependent businesses, but for the resilience, privacy, and integrity of the UK’s payments system as a whole. If the existing framework is not challenged, strengthened and accelerated, there is a real risk that we preside over the slow, avoidable erosion of a critical national asset.
Kind regards,
Terry Hughes
