Visa launched a programme to support consumers' access to cash on 22nd January, working with partner banks to offer high street retailers in remote and rural locations a fee for processing cashback transactions over the counter.

The new scheme will provide small UK merchants with 20p for every cashback transaction. Coupled with Mastercard’s 12p incentive, this would amount to roughly £37m per year to UK merchants if all cashback transactions qualified, according to BRC Associate Member CMSPI. However, more needs to be done to extend Visa's cashback plan to all merchants.

These announcements by the international card schemes follow calls from the BRC for retailers to be rewarded for cashback services, whose importance in providing customers with access to cash has grown as more banks have closed their high street branches and ATMs. 

Andrew Cregan, Head of Payments Policy at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Cash is a key part of the payment mix, accounting for almost 40% of retail transactions.  With thousands of recent banks and ATM closures across the UK, the BRC has been calling for measures to protect access to cash, including rewards for retailers that offer cashback services to their customers.”

“The availability of cash is particularly important to many vulnerable people, especially for budgeting and control purposes. Government could further help safeguard consumers’ access to cash by locking these retail incentives for providing cashback services to customers into regulation. Visa need to go much further, making this cashback reward available to all retailers."