Cash: A South Wales town running out of machines

In Treorchy’s Bute Street, Sara Bailey runs the Hot Gossip cafe and said her business and others have suffered since Barclays closed its doors.

“When Barclays left, she took the cash she had with her,” she said, adding that bank staff told her it was the “busiest till in South Wales”.

According to her, there are two other cashiers in the city, but they are struggling to cope with demand and run out of money “once, on some days even twice a day”.

“We’re a cash-only store here, so we’ve had to turn customers away. Several other businesses here have had to do the same,” she said.

A few doors down from Hot Gossip, Nicola Lund helps her father run Top Cards, a greetings card business that is also affected by the lack of ATMs.

“The post office is also quite a way into town so older people have to walk there to collect money and they don’t want to come back – I don’t blame them,” she said, adding: a nearby phone shop said its numbers had dropped since the bank closed decreased.

“I’m worried about the future of the business,” she said.

Barclays said in a statement that consumer behavior has changed, with the majority now choosing to bank online, and this was reflected in the Treorchy branch.

It said it has provided mobile delivery two days a week since the branch closed.

Treorchy isn’t the only one losing its banks in the area.

Half an hour away, Mountain Ash faces a similar situation.

The town has been without a bank since the last Lloyds branch closed in 2017.

A “banking hub” is expected to open in the city next year, allowing customers of any bank to withdraw and deposit cash, as well as make payments.

The service will join seven others in Wales – two of which are currently open, in Welshpool in Powys and Prestatyn in Denbighshire.

Other places are listed for Abergele in Conwy, Abertillery in Blaenau Gwent, Morriston in Swansea, Porthcawl in Bridgend and Risca in Caerphilly.

A temporary center has opened in Treorchy on the site of the former Barclays bank in Bute Street.

Like others in Wales, it is run by Cash Access UK – operating Monday to Friday between 09:00 and 17:00 – which has said it is looking for a permanent home for the centre.

A survey by consumer organization Which? Wales will lose two-thirds of the bank branches that opened in 2015 by the end of 2025, leaving just 188 in the country, it is proposed.

The Welsh Affairs Committee launched an inquiry into the matter and found that the number of bank and building society branches in Wales has fallen from 695 in 2012 to 435 in 2022, and 22 high street bank branches have already been announced to close by 2024.

Adrian Buckle, head of research at trade association UK Finance, said there was an increased trend for banks to reassess the costs of running branches.

“If you go back 15 years, six out of 10 payments we made were made using cash – but since last year that’s dropped to about 14% of payments,” he said.

Mr Buckle said that while he does not expect bank branches to become a thing of the past, the way banks operate on the high street may change, including the likely expansion of banking centres.

“It’s no longer financially viable to have five or six separate banks that have their own branches. But now they can share a branch and provide face-to-face banking services to customers in the area who want to bank that way.”

“I think it’s something that we’re going to see the whole industry use more and it’s going to be something that’s going to be good for consumers,” he said.