The Submit Workplace is proposing an enormous hike within the charges that banks pay to permit their prospects to entry its community because it makes an attempt to safe extra funding to spice up postmasters’ pay.
Sky Information understands that greater than two dozen banks and constructing societies are contemplating a proposal submitted to them lately by the Submit Workplace that will see the following banking framework costing them between £350m and £400m yearly – up from about £250m-a-year underneath the present deal.
Banking sources mentioned the roughly 30 excessive avenue lenders had been due to answer the Submit Workplace’s proposal within the early a part of the spring.
A deal costing the banks at the least £350m a 12 months is anticipated to be finalised by the autumn, the sources added.
The extra proceeds from the following settlement, which expires on the finish of this 12 months, shall be utilized in half to strengthen the brand new deal for sub-postmasters unveiled by Post Office chairman Nigel Railton in November.
Underneath the banking framework settlement, the 30 banks and mutuals’ prospects can entry the Submit Workplace’s 11,500 branches for a variety of providers, together with depositing and withdrawing money.
The service is especially invaluable to those that nonetheless depend on bodily money after a decade by which 6,000 bank branches have been closed throughout Britain.
In 2023, greater than £10bn value of money was withdrawn over-the-counter and £29bn in money was deposited over-the-counter, the Submit Workplace mentioned final 12 months.
A brand new settlement with the banks will come at a essential time for the Submit Workplace, whose new management crew is making an attempt to position it on a sustainable long-term footing.
Reliant on an annual authorities subsidy, the status of the community’s earlier administration crew was left in tatters by the Horizon IT scandal and the wrongful conviction of a whole bunch of sub-postmasters.
A Submit Workplace spokesperson mentioned: “Our partnership with 30 banks and constructing societies ensures that nobody who depends on money is left behind, made potential by our postmasters in virtually each neighborhood of the nation.
“We don’t touch upon ongoing negotiations.”
