Less than a month after launching its free ATM fund, Link, a U.K.-based cash machine network, has received more than 100 applications for new ATMs.
The requests have come from every corner of the U.K. including rural communities, deprived urban areas and small towns, Link said in a press release.
To meet this demand, Link announced Friday that it has launched a tool where people can apply directly for a new ATM in a particular location.
Applications will be judged on the distance to the nearest free ATM, the availability of a Post Office – where people in the U.K. can also access cash from their bank accounts — site security and whether there is a suitable host location. If an application meets the criteria, Link said it will fund the new ATM directly.
«It's great that we've had so much interest so far. Many of the applications show there are locations around the country where there is a cash access problem. We've already visited 10 of these locations and will be working hard to listen to every community that has got in touch,» John Howells, Link CEO, said in the release.
Link said it wants to hear from more communities that think they have an issue. «Where there is a problem, Link will take action,» Howells said.
Link will install 11 ATMs in Deal, Ebbw Vale, Margate, Middleton, Wilmslow, York, Battle, Bungay, Nuneaton, Tywyn in Wales, and Durness in Scotland, as part of a pilot scheme. These ATMs will be funded with the support of Link's bank and building society members.
In the past couple of weeks, three ATMs, directly commissioned by Link, have been installed in Ardington, Oxfordshire; Elham, Kent as well as Bracknell, Berkshire, after these locations lost their free-to-use ATMs.
Last month, at an ATM Industry Association conference in Rome, Natalie Ceeney, chair of Access to Cash Review, an independent report that looks at the need for cash across the U.K., warned that the U.K. was at a «tipping point» in terms of its cash infrastructure.
Source: ATM Marketplace