Paying in a cheque, depositing coins, and withdrawing money without being charged. All was once smooth in the bustling metropolis of rochford in essex.
That changed into till the last financial institution on the town closed its doors greater than 3 years ago. Considering the fact that then, the metropolis’s populace of 20,000 people have had to make a more complex journey for a simple economic project.
That became too much for some of its elderly and prone citizens till now, when they were given what locals describe as a “godsend”. A new bank hub, run via the publish workplace and shared by using five mainstream banks, has opened in a former carpet shop simply off the market rectangular Every weekday there is a counter setting, an automatic sediment machine, and a loose-to-use atm. Each day, a member of body of workers from a different financial institution comes in to assist with trickier transactions.
“one female got here in to mention ‘thank you, you have modified my lifestyles’, and that’s no longer a real understatement,” says richard fleetwood, postmaster on the rochford financial institution hub. “To have this on your step has been a lifeline.” Rochford is one of eight groups throughout the UK trialling unique methods to make sure residents have get proper of entry to to cash.
The pandemic has increased the closure of bank branches, the disappearance of free-to-use atms, and has cut the usage of notes and cash. Whilst coins use can be dwindling, research through the city regulator – the financial conduct authority – observed five million humans in the united kingdom are nonetheless dependant on it.
Face-to-face banking
The trials – funded by way of the UK’s primary banks and the publish office are trying out ways to make it less complicated for small groups and customers to deposit and trade cash. Without having to journey miles to their nearest financial institution.