15/06/2004

Britons lead Europe in cash machine usage

Britons are using cash machines at faster rate than anywhere else in Europe, withdrawing over £144 billion pounds from ATM's in 2003, according to data published today.

According to a new Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS) survey, cash machines were relied upon to supply more than half (53%) of all cash to individuals, with 2.37 billion transactions in 2003, equating to an average of 75 withdrawals per second. The average cash withdrawal value was £61 (1998: £53) at bank or building society machines and £46 at non-bank or building society machines.

The most recent figures for Europe relating to 2002 show the UK cash machine market grew by 11.3% against an average across the EU of just 6.2%, making the UK the fastest growing market in Western Europe. The rate of growth has accelerated during 2003, reaching 13.8%.

Sandra Quinn, Director of Communications of APACS, said: "As we become an increasingly mobile society, more and more UK customers rely on cash machines as part of their daily life.

"This increasing demand for more cash machines is met head on as the number of locations continues to increase year on year.

"We will reach a saturation point, where the demand for more locations will dwindle. But as our latest results show, that day is far from the present."

An additional 5,636 cash machines were deployed in the UK during 2003, bringing the total number of machines in the UK to 46,461 (up 13.8%).

There were 158 million plastic cards in issue in the UK by the end of 2003 that carried cash machine functionality. Of these, 70.4 million were credit or charge cards, 62.9 million were debit cards and 24.9 million were cash machine-only cards.

Ninety-seven per cent of withdrawals from cash machines in the UK were free last year according to data released by the today.

(gmcg)

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