New figures from Post Office (PO) reveal that branches saw £3.37bn worth of cash deposits and withdrawals in January 2024, up more than £140m on January 2023.

The results come amid increasing closures of banks and buildings societies, while some postmasters turn to opening banking hubs in their branches, according to PO.

Ross Borkett, Post Office banking director, said: “Postmasters and their teams keep their branches open long hours so that millions of people can access their cash conveniently and securely and they value face-to-face interaction when doing their everyday banking. [More than] 13 million cash transactions took place in January and we will continue to do all we can to support people to continue to do their everyday banking with their local Postmaster.”

Personal cash deposits totalled £1.42bn in January 2024 versus January 2023, up almost 8% month-on-month (£1.32bn in December 2023), said PO, and up 2.5% year-on-year (£1.39bn in January 2023).

Meanwhile, business cash deposits totalled £1.14bn up almost 4% month-on-month (£1.10bn in December 2023) and up 3.3% year-on-year (£1.11bn in January 2023).

In December, PO’s 11,500 branches saw a ‘record’ £930m worth of personal cash withdrawals. December is always the busiest month of the year for cash withdrawals in the run-up to Christmas. In January, personal cash withdrawals over the counter totalled £778 million. This was up 10% year on year (£709m in January 2023).

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