The amount of cash machines in the UK has grown my more than 10 times since 2010 following a campaign to increase the availability of the faithful fiver. Only 670 cash machines were dispensing £5 notes in 2009, that figure is now over 5000.
The Bank of England set a target for at least 1.2 per cent of dispensed bank notes to be £5 pound notes. The total of 1.5 per cent which equals almost £200 million worth of the notes is now dispensed every month. This year a total of £4 billion notes are hoped to enter circulation.
The Bank of England was very keen to get more of the notes into circulation to make more good quality notes available. The fiver has a bit of a reputation for often being old, worn and tatty.
Banks that participated in the BOE’s scheme include Nationwide, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Cooperative Bank, HSBC, Yorkshire Bank, Sainsbury’s Bank, the Bank of Ireland and post office branches.
Sir Melvyn King, governor of the Bank of England said ‘I am delighted that this initiative has been so successful.’
‘A key objective for the Bank is to maintain public confidence in the currency, by meeting demand with good quality genuine banknotes that the public can use with confidence.’