Vaultex featured in the Guardian

Vaultex Commercial Director Mark Trevor is quoted in a Guardian article regarding UK cash use. Mark responded to claims that UK is going cashless.

However, some working in cash-handling businesses are confident that a future remains for cash.

They point to the fact there are more bank notes in circulation, totalling a higher value, than ever before – though this measure includes cash lying dormant in bank vaults and ATMs, and as such is not a reflection of usage rates.

Mark Trevor, commercial director at Vaultex, which handles one-third of the country’s cash, said while they could not provide figures, they are seeing less of a decline in cash use than other sources are reporting. “While industry figures do show a decline in cash use, the idea that we will all be going cashless has been greatly exaggerated.”

The article can be found here.

Mark’s comments were reflected in another article in the Guardian, an interview with the Bank of England’s chief cashier, Victoria Cleland.

In 2016, the latest year for which information is available, cash was used for 44% of all consumer transactions, says Cleland. That was down from 50% the previous year and from 68% a decade earlier.

“There is a slowdown in cash used for consumer transactions,” she says. “But the value of notes in circulation has been increasing year on year for the past decade or so. We are still seeing growth in total demand for cash.”

That, Cleland explains, is because people do not only use cash to spend in bars and shops. Some hold cash in case payment machines are not working. The amount of cash people keep is related to their trust in their banks. There was a noticeable spike in September 2007 when there was a run on branches of Northern Rock.

There are numerous other reasons, Cleland says, why many people prefer to stay with banknotes: “Some people like it because it is quick and easy, and you don’t need to rely on technology.