We remain concerned about this and we are receiving regular updates from LINK’s senior team to ensure it delivers on its commitments to protect the broad spread of FTU ATMs.
LINK’s policies
In October, we gave LINK a specific direction to make sure it does all it can to fulfil the public commitments it made at the beginning of 2018 to preserve the broad geographic spread of FTU ATMs for UK consumers. In that direction, we required LINK to fully develop its policies and processes for applying and implementing its public commitments and to report to us on a regular basis.
LINK has now developed and published its policies, including details of how it seeks to ensure both the continued operation of protected ATMs that are at risk of closure and the replacement of those that have closed.
These policies include new mitigation strategies to protect these ATMs, such as direct commissioning by LINK. Essentially this new development means that where a protected ATM has been withdrawn, in appropriate circumstances LINK can now directly pay for the installation of a replacement FTU ATM using money collected from its members.
An update on the PSR’s work
Since last month we have continued to engage with stakeholders. This included a meeting involving the banks, LINK, the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England to discuss the matter further. In the meeting the banks expressed support for LINK’s approach and recognised that a long-term solution is needed.