October saw Post Offices (POs) across the UK handle £3.69bn in cash deposits and withdrawals; the highest monthly total since July 2024 where they reached £3.78bn, while cash deposits in Scotland were up nearly 15% YOY.
UK Business and Personal cash deposits totalled £2.73bn in October, up 3% month-on-month (MOM) from £2.65bn in September 2024 and up over 11.5% year-on-year (YOY) from £2.44bn in October 2023.
Scotland saw total cash deposits climb to £186.8m in October, up 6.6% MOM and 14.8% YOY, the highest increase in the UK in percentage terms. Meanwhile, total cash withdrawals in Scotland stood at £250.7m, up 5.4% MOM and 8.4% YOY.
Personal cash deposits in the UK totalled £1.52bn, up 2.2% MOM from £1.49bn in September 2024 and up almost 15% YOY from £1.32bn in October 2023. October 2024 was only the third time personal cash deposits have exceeded £1.5bn in a single month (previously July and August 2024).
UK Business cash deposits totalled £1.21bn, up almost 4% MOM from £1.16bn in September 2024, and up almost 8% YOY from £1.12bn in October 2023. October 2024 was only the second time business cash deposits have exceeded £1.2bn in a single month (previously July 2024).
Personal cash withdrawals in the UK totalled £928m in October, up 6.6% MOM from £871m in September 2024, and up 13% YOY from £821m in October 2023. The amount withdrawn over the counter was just below the record amount withdrawn in a single month set in December 2023 at £930m.
Ross Borkett, Post Office Banking Director, said:
“Our figures indicate that demand for cash is as strong as ever as people rely on cash to budget, particularly in the run-up to Christmas, and businesses rely on it to survive a volatile trading environment. Postmasters and their teams play a vital role in supporting small businesses to trade by providing a convenient and secure location to deposit their cash takings with many branches open long hours and some at weekends.”
