News

02 Jul 2018

Rural banking services not good enough

Branch closures and poor connectivity are leaving people in rural areas with problems accessing banking services.

The charity, Scottish Rural Action, has called for a ‘universal service obligation’ (USO) for banking services after a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) survey revealed people in rural areas had more difficulty getting to banks and using internet banking systems.

The FCA found 70% UK adults who never use the internet, or 3.7 million people, lived in rural areas and the take-up of mobile banking in rural areas was nearly half the amount in urban areas, at 23%.

Emma Cooper, the group’s chief executive, said bank closures were compounding the feeling people were disadvantaged by living in the countryside as many already experienced connectivity problems.

The problem is expected to get worse as more people become reliant on the internet, with government services such as benefits and farm payment systems moving online.

The Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) said the figures were no surprise as the closure of rural banks had a detrimental effect on rural towns and questioned why the banks partially owned by taxpayers were not required to keep branches open.

It added internet banking was still not an option in all rural areas as people may not have an appropriate internet connection, ‘if they have a connection at all’, and others worried about cyber security.

The union also suggested rural areas were being made less attractive to young families and business owners as more rural services and businesses closed down.

A spokesman said, “If the problem of rural depopulation is not addressed with some urgency, it could have severe consequences for our rural communities and also our rural economy.”

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