News

British ATMs 'go big' during Olympics

August 16, 2012

Perhaps the time has come to toss the Cashless Olympics into the dustbin of Things That Weren't, there to join the Paperless Office and the Y2K Bug.

Today the U.K.'s LINK network announced that it recorded a nearly five percent jump in cash withdrawals during the recent London games, compared with the same 17-day span last year.

And these are just LINK numbers. They don't reflect the vast majority of overseas card withdrawals, or withdrawals made by customers at their FI's own ATM. Nor do they reflect withdrawals made at Olympic venues, which were equipped with Visa-only ATMs on a Visa proprietary network.

LINK cash withdrawals between July 27 and August 12 rose by £270 million ($424.9 million) for a total of £6.108 billion ($9.613 billion) in 2012 as compared with £5.838 billion ($9.188 billion) in 2011, an increase of 4.6 percent, to be precise.

"August is normally a quiet month for ATM withdrawals but, so far, 2012 has proved the exception," said LINK CEO John Howells. "This extra cash should boost spending which should prove a valuable bonus to retailers."

For more on this topic, visit the trends/statistics research center.