Charities: Banking Services

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 23rd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that easy, holiday-focused question on the last day of term. I also thank my noble friend Lord Pitt-Watson, who got to the Treasury job too late to take this Question. Mine’s a gin and tonic, David.

We recognise the concerns raised by charities about access to banking services. The UK’s anti-money laundering regime is designed to be risk-based and proportionate, and banks are expected to assess customers on that basis, rather than applying blanket approaches. We continue to engage with the banking sector, regulators and charities to understand these issues, and we will keep under review whether further guidance is needed to support fair and proportionate treatment of civil society organisations.

Just to share my empathy with my noble friend, the Charity Finance Group’s 2024 survey said that 92% of charities had experienced at least one banking difficulty in the previous two years. That number needs to come down.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, can the Minister address the issue of access for charities and others in rural areas? Two or three years ago, the Treasury issued a mandate that every resident should live within two or three miles of a bank branch. That has simply not happened. Can he address this as a matter of urgency?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I understand the point the noble Baroness is making; I live in south Devon, so I recognise the picture. We understand the importance to communities and high streets of access to banking services. The industry has committed to a rollout of 350 banking hubs by the end of this Parliament. Over 275 hubs have been announced so far, and more than 240 are already open. You can get a full list of hubs on the Cash Access UK website. If there is a particular place where there is no access to banking services, you can put in a petition, as it were, and it is obliged to look into it. This is an ongoing area of concern for the Government, and we have launched a review into access to banking services. I will happily talk more about that if noble Lords ask me.