The Government has published a bill aimed at protecting the role of cash in the Irish financial system.

The plans arise from recommendations made in the 2022 Retail Banking Review on preventing financial exclusion, and the need for a safety net in the event of outages or cyber-attacks affecting electronic banking or the payments infrastructure.

The Finance (Provision of Access to Cash Infrastructure) Bill 2024 places obligations on the three main banks to provide access to ATMs and cash points.

It also provides for the registration and supervision by the Central Bank of ATM operators and cash-in-transit providers.

ATM requirements

Under the proposals, banks must ensure that, in each of the State’s eight regions:

• A specified percentage of the population must be within no less than 5km and no more than 10km of an ATM,
• There is a specified number of ATMs per 100,000 people,
• A specified percentage of the population must be within no less than 5km and no more than 10km of a cash service point – either a bank branch or a post office.

The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has expressed concern about this aspect of the proposals.

The bill also includes measures aimed at addressing any difficulties in accessing cash that arise in particular locations.

It also allows the Minister for Finance, after consultation with the Central Bank, to make regulations that prohibit or cap the maximum access fee that can be charged, if access fees are introduced in the future.

Reviews of the access-to-cash criteria will be carried out:

• After the publication of final Census population data,
• If cash demand drops by 15% in a calendar year compared with the previous year, or
• At the request of the Minister for Finance.

The Central Bank will also be allowed to order a review.

Service standards

On ATM operators, the Central Bank will be given the power to make regulations introducing service standards covering matters such as hours of operation, operational resilience, and bank-note denomination stocking.

The Minister for Finance Jack Chambers said that cash continued to play an important role in the economy.

“It is imperative to ensure that cash remains widely available and accessible, to protect the economy when technology is not a viable option, and ensure that those who rely on cash can do so into the future,” he said.