Removing banking services from the High street is not a good thing.

Today a new agreement between the Post Office and UK banks comes into effect which will see the biggest expansion in face-to-face banking in a generation.

The agreement brings together the Post Office’s existing arrangements with individual banks into a single set of services available to customers of virtually all UK banks. This new simplified service will allow personal and business customers to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at Post Office branches.

By providing easy access to day-to-day banking services at the Post Office, the impact of bank branch closures can be minimised.

The full announcement is below. Details of the services available for each bank are available here:http://www.postoffice.co.uk/branch-banking-services

I am looking into exactly how this will work in Portsmouth, but it is certainly one way we can ensure people can perform these basic transactions in our local High streets. Vital for personal banking and for business. This is timely given the announcement re HSBC in Cosham.