The UK has built one of the most efficient digital payments markets in the world. Consumers can tap, transfer and transact with a level of speed and familiarity that would have been difficult to imagine even 20 years ago. While that progress should be recognised, efficiency is not always the same as resilience.
The risk of reliance on a small number of payment rails
The comment doing the rounds that switching off Visa and Mastercard would “send us back to the 1950s” may sound stark, but it points to a real issue for the payments industry. The UK’s payments ecosystem is increasingly dependent on a small number of global rails. That concentration matters, not because those rails do not work well – in most cases, they do – but because no critical system should be designed around the assumption that one route will always be available.
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A well-functioning payments ecosystem needs multiple ways to transact when one part of the system fails, becomes unavailable or does not meet the needs of a particular user. That includes cards, account-to-account payments, mobile wallets, open banking-enabled services and cash. Each has a role. The question is whether the UK is treating those roles as part of one connected infrastructure, or as separate debates.
Cash as infrastructure, not just inclusion
At present, cash is too often discussed as a social inclusion issue alone. That is important, but incomplete. Cash also has an infrastructure role. It provides a fallback when digital systems are unavailable due to IT failure, such as seen during the high-profile outage in the Iberian peninsula. It supports consumers who need physical money to budget. It enables businesses to keep trading when connectivity, terminals or payment providers fail. It gives people and merchants another route through the system.
For anyone working in payments, this is a familiar principle. A system is stronger when it has more than one route available. Banks already build back-up routes into the technology that keeps payments running, from the systems that approve transactions to the processes that move money between institutions. The same thinking should apply to the payment options available to consumers and businesses.
The UK has started to acknowledge this. The FCA’s access to cash rules, introduced on 18 September 2024 and are now well underway, give designated firms clearer responsibilities to identify and address gaps in cash access. The government’s National Payments Vision points in the same direction by enforcing the idea that consumers and businesses should have genuine choice in how they pay.
The delivery challenge for industry
Those are useful steps but regulation alone will not build the infrastructure the country needs. The real test is whether the industry can create a network that is accessible, sustainable and convenient enough to work for everyone.
Banking hubs, deposit services and shared ATM infrastructure are becoming part of that answer. Shared infrastructure allows banks to maintain access in communities where individual branch economics are becoming harder to support. Multi-bank deposit ATMs, enhanced Post Office services and banking hubs all form part of a richer physical banking network. For small businesses in particular, the ability to deposit takings locally can affect whether accepting cash remains viable.
There is also a strategic point for banks. Shared cash infrastructure should not be viewed only as a compliance requirement. It is part of customer service, operational resilience and market confidence. As branches continue to close, banks need credible alternatives that support both consumers and merchants. The better those alternatives are, the easier it becomes to manage the transition to a more digital banking model without leaving gaps behind.
Digital rails and cash should work together
This sits alongside, not against, the development of new digital rails. Account-to-account payments, open banking and potential future payment models all have an important place in reducing concentration and improving choice. But new digital alternatives will take time to mature at scale. They also depend on connectivity, devices, authentication journeys and user confidence. Cash solves a different part of the resilience equation.
The risk is that the UK treats resilience as a purely digital design challenge. It is not. Payments happen in the real economy: in shops, markets, taxis, care settings, rural communities, hospitality venues and households managing tight budgets. The system has to work there too.
For cash, that means treating it as part of the UK’s payments infrastructure, not as an exception to it. It means designing access points around where people live, shop and work. It means using technology to reduce the cost to serve while improving availability. And it means ensuring that consumers and businesses can choose the payment method that works for them, including when other parts of the system do not.
The UK has the opportunity to lead on this. It has strong digital rails, an active policy agenda and a cash access framework that is now moving from principle to delivery. The next step is to connect those pieces more deliberately.
Neil Martin, Managing Director, UK, Ireland, Benelux, Baltics and Nordics, NCR Atleos
