Four cash facts (week ending 1 May 2022)
The volume of ATM transactions:
decreased by 21% when compared to the final week before the first COVID lockdown.
increased by 12% when compared to the previous week in 2022.
increased by 8% when compared to the equivalent week in 2021.
increased by 42% when compared to the equivalent week in 2020.
Daily
The graph below from LINK shows Tuesdays’ transactions over the last four years clearly showing the fall in 2020 as the first Lockdown was announced.
Recent Tuesdays’ ATM use has been very consistent at almost exactly 4 million a day.
The following graph also shows LINK ATM use in 2022 continue to be above 2020 as the first full lockdown was in force.
The pattern for 2022 itself shows little change and was particularly consistent over the last week. Activity can be seen to be just tracking ahead of 2021 which although more subdued given the restrictions in place is also relatively consistent overall.
LINK, the UK’s main ATM cash machine network has recently published its latest research looking at COVID-19’s effect on consumers’ attitudes to cash.
Two years on, half of people (50%) say they are using less cash than they were pre-Covid. One quarter (25%) say they are using the same with 4% using more.
Weekly
Last week there was a total of 33.5 million ATM transactions which represents an increase of 3.5 million ATM transactions over the previous week.
In 2022, there was an increase of 2.6 million transactions or 8% when compared with the equivalent week in 2021.