Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock has promised to keep cash as a viable payment option despite only 5.5 per cent of the population relying on notes, but a declining number of bank branches has left some worried.

Cash payments have declined over recent decades as more people prefer to use digital methods to pay for goods and services, with the latest Australian Banking Association report showing the annual number of ATM withdrawals plummeted from over 50 million in 2012 to roughly 15 million in 2024.

But roughly 1.5 million Australians still depend on cash, and a record high level of about $105 billion of cash remains in circulation, according to the central bank.

Bullock has vowed to ensure “cash remains a viable means of payment for as long as Australians want or need to use it”, despite significant challenges that have made it “more costly to store, process and distribute cash”.

“These issues are most pressing for rural and regional areas where these services are most expensive,” she told a parliamentary committee in Canberra yesterday.

Bullock also addressed the viability of Armaguard, which handles most cash movements around Australia and has received two rounds of emergency funding from banks and the industry to stay afloat.

“As you know, the logistics of moving cash to bank branches, ATMs and retailers is undertaken by cash-in-transit companies and the industry needs to work together towards a more sustainable distribution system,” she said.

The Australian Banking Association followed suit, saying that banks would also continue to support cash distribution and customers who “wish to still use it”. 

“Whilst people are using cash less and less, it will continue to play an important role in our economy,” an Australian Banking Association spokesperson said.

Cash Welcome campaign manager Jason Bryce, however, accused Bullock of creating a “use it or lose it” system instead of holding banks to account for their responsibility to have the mechanisms in place to distribute cash.

“The number of withdrawals made in a bank branch over the counter from a teller is not changing for the last three years, despite the fact there’s less branches and less branches that actually deal in cash,” he said.

“So Australians are travelling further, paying more to access cash.

“The problem with the words that Michelle Bullock and the RBA are using is it opens the door for the big banks to further squeeze access to cash and make it more difficult for us to use cash and then claim that we don’t want cash.

“These big four banks are private businesses responsible to shareholders. Michelle Bullock’s shareholders are the taxpayers and the citizens of Australia.”

Concerns over access to cash are growing as banks continue to shut down branches across the country, which is feared to impact the elderly and remote communities the worst.

According to the Finance Sector Union, more than 1600 bank branches closed between June 2017 and June 2022 and most were from the big four banks (Commonwealth Bank, NAB, ANZ and Westpac).

“Bank closures are simply a grab by corporations for a larger slice of profits and a desire to exit the most expensive arm of banking – face-to-face banking services,” Finance Sector Union National Secretary Julia Angrisano said when Bendigo Bank announced closures in July.

Bryce said cash was important for privacy, ownership and budgets, but also vital for serious situations like when someone was fleeing domestic violence.

“It’s not conceivable to me that there will ever be a time when we don’t need cash in Australia,” he said.

“I’m confused why the RBA isn’t more concerned about promoting the efficiency and the benefits of cash to ordinary consumers.”