Business cash deposits at post offices totalled £1.12bn in October, up more than 3% month-on-month, according to new Post Office figures.
Post Office says the figures indicate that businesses are starting to see an increase in cash transactions as the festive season starts to get underway.
In addition, personal cash deposits totalled £1.32bn in October, up 0.8% month-on-month. However, personal cash deposits dipped 0.8% year-on-year.
Overall, the volume of cash deposit transactions was up over 550,000 year-on-year (+10.2%). Business cash deposit volumes alone were over 8% higher than last year indicating that businesses are responding to bank-imposed cash limits by depositing smaller values but at higher volumes at their local post office.
Personal cash withdrawals at post offices across the UK rose 0.5% month-on-month to £821m in October. Personal cash withdrawals were up almost 6% year-on-year to total £777m in October.
In total, £3.3bn worth of cash was deposited and withdrawn over the counter at Post Office’s 11,500 branches, compared to £3.25bn in September.
Martin Kearsley, Post Office Banking Director, said: “For many people and businesses, cost of living challenges remain. The increase in value and volume of business cash deposits does indicate the continuing importance of cash in many peoples’ lives, and businesses are having to adjust to the bank-imposed limits on how much they can deposit each time.
“Postmasters are here to support their local communities with all of their cash needs and particularly in the run-up to Christmas as people use cash to budget and businesses rely on somewhere open long hours to deposit much needed cash takings.”
