ATCS 5.3 Step 1: Identifying local deficiencies

ATCS 5.3.2R involves the need to establish who could be affected. The work undertaken to do this should be reasonable and proportionate, bearing in mind that this is not the cash access assessment itself. It involves looking at the potential for effects rather than reaching a conclusion on whether there are actual effects. It should not involve the need to establish whether any persons actually use cash, nor to undertake any of the detailed steps in ATCS 5.2.1R. The purpose is to establish the grouping of residents and businesses (by reference to an area) that those steps should be directed at.

In determining the people who could be affected under ATCS 5.3.2R, one consideration may be where people in the relevant surrounding area who might use cash are likely to use it regularly, such as retail areas, and the presence (or otherwise) of cash access facilities there. For example, if a relevant closure takes place in a village, residents of a nearby town may not be regarded as people who could be affected if it is reasonable to expect that they do not make regular use of the relevant cash access facility in the village because of the presence of cash access facilities in the town.

ATCS 5.3.2R(3) involves the application of a hypothetical test of who could be affected if a relevant closure was to take place. The methodology for determining the persons referred to in ATCS 5.3.2R(2) and ATCS 5.3.2R(3) should accordingly be consistent.

If the methodology adopts a radius measurement extending from the relevant reference point that is the same for every cash access assessment, that is unlikely to be regarded as an appropriate methodology as it would not take account of the potential for differing local circumstances, such as differences in geography.

Where the requirement for a cash access assessment is triggered under ATCS 4.1.1R(1) (concerning closures of designated firms) or ATCS 4.1.1R(2) (concerning closures of persons other than designated firms), the local area is unlikely to be appropriately drawn if it does not at least include the addresses of any persons who, as a result of the relevant closure, are or would no longer be within the relevant distance of one or more cash access facilities which, between them, provide the specified cash access services and specified cash access facility features being assessed at step 1.

The cash access assessment begins by considering whether there is a local deficiency in provision of cash access services by reference to what is available within the relevant distance. Exclusions from consideration of what cash access services are available for the purposes of ATCS 5.3.5R or ATCS 5.3.8R are set out in ATCS 5.2.5R and ATCS 5.3.10R. The effect of ATCS 5.2.5R(1) is that where a cash access assessment is undertaken as a result of an expected full closure of a cash access facility, that facility must be ignored for the purposes of ATCS 5.3.5R or ATCS 5.3.8R. Where the assessment results from a material reduction or change in provision of cash access services expected at a cash access facility, the effect of ATCS 5.2.5R(2) is that the facility can be taken into account but only to the extent of the cash access services it will provide after the reduction/change.

See ATCS 4.1.12G(3) on the impact of ATCS 4.1.11R on the specified cash access services and specified cash access facility features that must be assessed in accordance with ATCS 5.3.7R(1). Designated persons may want to bear this in mind when considering the scope of cash access assessments. Unless assessments are undertaken on a holistic basis (ie, by assessing all specified cash access services and specified cash access facility features), they could in theory have to act on multiple cash access requests indicating different issues in respect of the same or substantially the same local area within a 12-month period.

There is no requirement in ATCS 5.3.5R(3) that the specified cash access service at a cash access facility within the relevant distance must be provided by the same provider that provided it at the cash access facility which is the subject of the relevant closure. The focus is on the availability of the type of specified cash access service, not on the identity of the provider.

Reliance on ATCS 5.3.5R or ATCS 5.3.8R is not dependent on all the specified cash access services under assessment being provided at the same cash access facility. They may be provided through a combination of 2 or more cash access facilities.

ATCS 5.3.9R(1) is most likely to apply in rural areas – for example, where:

1. (a)

   geographical barriers mean that it takes substantially longer for people living in the local area to travel to the relevant cash access facility or cash access facilities than it does to travel to their nearest retail areas; or

2. (b)

   limited transport networks mean that it costs people living in the local area substantially more to travel to the relevant cash access facility or cash access facilities than it does to travel to their nearest retail areas.

An example of where ATCS 5.3.9R(2) may apply is if a cash access facility subject to a full closure has several service counters, and the only other cash access facility within the relevant distance with equivalent specified cash access services and specified cash access facility features has one counter. If this means the other cash access facility would be unable to accommodate the additional demand from users of cash access services in the local area following the relevant closure, ATCS 5.3.5R cannot be relied on.

Opening hours may be relevant to consideration of a cash access facility’s capacity under ATCS 5.3.9R(2). For example, the facility may be open for so few hours each week that this leads to unacceptable delays in service or queues.

Predictable fluctuations in demand may also be relevant to consideration of capacity. For example, where a local area receives a significant influx of visitors during the holiday season or on market days, which puts pressure on the cash access facility.

The effect of ATCS 5.3.10R is that if the only cash access facility within the relevant distance is a branch of a bank or building society, and the condition in ATCS 5.3.12R is not met, the only specified cash access services provided at the branch that it may be possible to take into account for the purposes of ATCS 5.3.5R or ATCS 5.3.8R are services which are also available to customers of at least one other relevant current account provider. An example of this is a cash withdrawal service provided through an automatic teller machine which is part of the LINK network. If cash withdrawal services are being assessed, it may be possible to find there is no local deficiency in them where there is such a machine, subject to any specified cash access facility features that also need to be assessed and the qualifications in ATCS 5.3.9R. But if any cash deposit services are being assessed in this scenario and these are not also available to customers of another relevant current account provider, they will have to proceed to step 2.

Under section 131U(5) of the Act, a local deficiency in the provision of cash access services is: ‘a circumstance which limits the ability of persons in any locality in a part of the United Kingdom to (a) withdraw cash from a relevant current account, or (b) place cash on a relevant current account’.

Under section 131U(6) of the Act, in determining whether there are local deficiencies, the FCA must have regard to the Treasury’s Cash Access Policy Statement published under section 131P(6) of the Act which is currently in effect, as well as such other matters as the FCA considers appropriate.

The relevant distances are taken from the Treasury’s Cash Access Policy Statement published on 18 August 2023. These distances are measured in a straight line.

The distances in the Cash Access Policy Statement do not include distances for business premises from cash access facilities. However, the statement says: ‘the distance relative to the residential population is considered here to be a suitable proxy’. No separate distances are given in this chapter relative to business premises.