News in Brief

UK Coin Questions

One of the parts of the cash cycle most affected by the pandemic has been coins. The normal flow has been seriously disrupted as people have switched to card payments or have rounded cash payments to use notes in preference to coins. In February 2020 there were almost £3 million worth of 2p coins held in wholesale cash centres, but demand has continued to outstrip supply almost every week, and in the past twelve months over £2.2 million in new 2p coins have been issued into circulation but never returned. Where are they all and why aren’t the pennies behaving the same?

The £2 coin is also staying out with the public far longer – again, for reasons that are not properly understood. Perhaps being hoarded for those long awaited holidays? The result, though, is that additional stocks are having to be minted to fill the gap.

Cash Services, part of UK Finance, is monitoring coin flows and would very much like more normal circulation patterns to return to get things back to where they were. As in the US, it would be helpful if the public would look down the back of their sofas and empty their coin jars to get those coins moving again.

ATMIA Wants Universal Cash Deposit ATMs Installed as Standard

The ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) has published a position paper recommending the adoption of Universal Cash Deposit (UCD) systems and standards for ATM networks.

In the light of declining numbers of bank branches, ATMIA sees deposit-taking and recirculating ATMs as playing an important part in maintaining access to cash. The technology was first introduced in 1982 and is used widely around the world, but not as standard.

The paper defines UCDs as being interoperable within an ATM network, or across multiple networks. It wants the machines to operate on an interbank basis.

Separately, ATMIA has set up a Cash Hub as a data source to help ATM and cash businesses stay up to date about what is happening to cash – trends, statistics, news, Cash Council meeting information etc. The sharing of information about threats to cash alongside successes in promoting cash access is seen as important to supporting cash in the industry and more widely.

Ahead of its US Conference in June, the ATMIA wants to tell the story of how cash is important in society. Irrespective of the media or format, whether and however written, photographs or videos, it will show the submissions as part of the conference. This is also part of its campaign to support access to cash by showing its positive impact and importance to people.

Brink’s Buys PAI Backing ATMs

Brink’s has bought PAI Inc, the largest privately-held provider of ATM services in the US, for $213 million. PAI offers managed services and tools for ATM owner-operators, as well as owning its own ATMs. It writes its own software, providing cash management and maintenance solutions for ATMs.

Ownership of PAI, which looks after over 100,000 ATM service locations in the US, allows Brinks to offer its US customers 'a complete range of ATM services, including full-service outsourcing, which increases the value of their ATM networks'.

In Europe, Brink’s has entered into agreements to take full ownership of 11,000 ATMs.

UK Cash Cycle Industry Environmental Initiative Gets Going

14 organisations joined the first monthly call to get to work on the cash cycle environmental initiative kick started last year by NatWest. Hosted by UK Finance, the meeting focused on what would be measured and reported with the goal of achieving an industry baseline to allow companies to compare their performance.

While an item such as carbon emissions may be reported annually, reductions in plastic waste may be easier to track and report quarterly. As always, definitions are important, with single use plastic being different from recyclable plastic.

Energy supplies were also in focus. At this stage data was wanted about whether companies have renewable energy contracts in place.

There are two sayings that apply here, the devil is in the detail and every long journey starts with a single step. And at this meeting the journey started.

Ghanaian Bank Calls for the End of Cheques

First National Bank, a commercial bank in Ghana, has called for a roadmap to the end of cheque usage, suggesting that Ghana has sufficient electronic payment options in place to allow this to happen.

In July 2019 the Bank of Namibia announced the end of cheque usage and South Africa did the same from 1 January 2021. In Ghana cheques are mostly used by businesses and government departments and this is reflected in the 2020 average cheque value being GHS 30,000 while the Automated Clearing House average payment value was GHS 300.

In 2009 Ghana introduced image-based processing with cheque codeline clearing so that the physical cheque no longer needed to be moved between banks. As a result, clearing times fell to two days and, if express clearing was used, same day clearance.

The 2019 Banking Industry Fraud Report showed that cheque fraud, the suppression of cash/deposit and forgery and manipulation of document crime all increased while cyber-email, ATM/POS and other crimes fell. On the other hand, cheque fraud went up from 39 cases in 2018 to 40 in 2019.

The Bank of Ghana has not announced any plans concerning cheques to date.

Fewer Bank Branches

Germany’s Commerzbank is to close 340 bank branches by 2024, a 43% reduction. The plan is for one in three jobs in its German business to go, with 1,700 of them going this year.

In Australia Westpac is carrying out a similar exercise, closing 48 bank branches and amalgamating others. The reduction is said to be a response to changing customer behaviour as people turn to internet and mobile banking.

In the UK Banco Santander is closing 111 branches because it has seen branch traffic fall by 50% in 2020. At the same time it is closing offices in London, Manchester and Newcastle but opening a new purpose-built campus in Milton Keynes. Just as the Nationwide Building Society has announced it is closing three offices in Swindon allowing staff to work from home, Santander is also allowing staff to work from home or in what it calls, ‘local collaboration spaces’.