Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with Barclays Bank on the effect on rural areas of the bank's planned withdrawal from the banking framework with Post Office Ltd.

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with many organisations in the public and private sectors on a variety of issues.

The Post Office Limited has recently renegotiated the commercial terms and service enhancements for Banking Framework 2, which will take effect from January 2020. The Government welcomes this agreement that, alongside other work by industry, regulators and Government to safeguard cash for those who need it, will ensure that 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers continue to have access to everyday banking services at the Post Office.

Barclays has extended its agreement with Post Office Limited, though its customers won’t be able to withdraw cash over the counter at post offices from January 2020. Barclays’ customers will still be able to check their balance, and pay in cash and cheques. Whilst the Government is committed to maintaining access to cash, and has set up the Joint Authorities Cash Strategy Group to help ensure this, the decision over precisely how to provide access to banking services is rightly a commercial decision for banks and Government does not intervene in these decisions.

If Barclays customers value withdrawing cash over the counter using the Post Office, they may wish to consider switching to an alternative bank using the Current Account Switch Service (CASS). The switch service is free to use, comes with a guarantee to protect customers from financial loss if something goes wrong, and redirects any payments mistakenly sent to the old account, providing further assurance for customers. This means that customers are more able than ever to hold their banks to account by voting with their feet, and that banks are incentivised to work hard to retain their existing customers and attract new ones. More information about CASS is available at:

www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk