Bank of England Shrinks Cash Footprint

The success of the new polymer series and falling transactional demand are behind the Bank of England’s proposal to close its regional cash distribution centre in the northern city of Leeds, in February 2023.

The Bank has maintained an operation in Leeds since the establishment of a branch there in 1827. Since 1997, this has focused on cash distribution.

Following the successful transition of English banknotes to polymer, the Bank says it expects demand for distribution of new banknotes to fall in light of their greater durability, together with the continuing trend towards lower transactional usage of cash (Recent research by the financial consultancy firm Enryo suggested that cash transactions fell from 7.2 billion in 2019 to 3.4 billion in 2020, a 53% drop).