Cash deposits at Post Office return to pre-Covid levels and top £2 Billion – September cash deposits higher than any month so far in 2020

• Value of cash deposits in September higher than any month so far this year.
• Cash deposits by business and personal customers totalled £2 billion in September, up 7.7% on September 2019.
• First time since February, before lockdown, that cash deposits by business and personal customers exceeds equivalent month in 2019.
• Personal cash withdrawals amount to £591 million, up 7.1% on August. Figure is down 2.6% compared to same month last year, which is the smallest year on year gap since lockdown in April.
• Overall, cash deposits and withdrawals by business and personal customers amounted to over £2.6 billion in September. Up 11.3% on August (£2.35 billion) and 9.7% on July (£2.4 billion)

Cash deposits by business and personal customers at Post Office branches in September were up 7.7% on same month last year. Branches saw the highest amount of deposits in a single month (£2 billion) and this was the first time since February, before lockdown, that cash deposits exceeded the equivalent month in 2019.

Overall, cash deposits and withdrawals by business and personal customers amounted to over £2.6 billion in September, up 11.3% on August (£2.35 billion). Data is taken from the third Post Office Cash Tracker showing the billions of pounds deposited and withdrawn each month at its 11,500 branch locations.

Post Office Cash tracker data – September 2020

Nick Read, Chief Executive at the Post Office, said:

“Our data shows that cash deposits are exceeding what we saw at the start of this year, as well as the amount that was deposited at the same point last year, well before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. We’ll be monitoring closely what impact the recently introduced lockdown measures have on small businesses’ ability to stay open and deposit their takings at our branches. They will continue to be the place where cash can be quickly and locally deposited helping to give small business owners more time to keep serving their customers.”

Business customers

Cash deposits specifically by business customers amounted to £965 million showing how much small businesses and independent retailers continue to rely on cash to operate. The figure for business cash deposits in September 2020 was the highest amount since February 2020 when £890 million was deposited at Post Office branches. Cash deposits by businesses were up 16.2% when compared to last month.

Personal customers

The value of cash deposits by personal customers remains high, and greatly exceeds pre-Covid-19 levels. In September, over £1 billion was deposited in cash at Post Office counters. September was the first month this year were personal cash deposits exceeded a billion pounds in a single month. In terms of cash withdrawals by personal customers, £591 million was withdrawn at the Post Office’s 11,500 counters. This is up 7% compared with last month. Whilst withdrawals have yet to exceed the equivalent month the previous year, September’s gap was the smallest all year with the amount withdrawn down 2.6% compared with September 2019.

Personal cash deposits

Personal cash withdrawals

Commenting on September’s data, Martin Kearsley, Director of Banking at Post Office, said:

“It’s encouraging to see the highest amount of money deposited at our branches all year. Cash deposits by personal customers recovered quickly after the first UK-wide lockdown and now far exceed what we saw even at the start of the year. We are encouraged to see Business deposits now recovering strongly too and continue to support all local businesses with their cash needs. Cash withdrawals are making a steady recovery which signifies growing consumer confidence which in turn helps small businesses and local high streets as we know where cash is taken out locally it tends to be spent locally too.”

For further data and analysis, visit www.corporate.postoffice.co.uk/cashtracker

Ends

About Post Office Cash Tracker and access to cash

Data included in this press release reflects cash services used under the Banking Framework. Over 30 banks and building societies are part of the Banking Framework which enables their customers to withdraw or deposit cash at any of the Post Office’s 11,500 branches. The figures exclude Post Office Card Account withdrawals.

Post Office is supporting the Community Access to Cash Pilots initiative led by Natalie Ceeney, Chair of the Access to Cash Review. Pilots will run in nine local communities to trial how to improve their access to cash. There will be three new local ‘banking hubs’ in dedicated retail spaces on the high street created, which combine the cash-transaction facilities of a Post Office with access to community banking services offered by retail banks. Post Office is also refurbishing branches or providing pop up services in the remaining areas.

[1]Figures for cash deposits value and cash withdrawals value by country have been rounded to the nearest million. This is why value figures per country will not add up exactly to the total for the UK.