A new 'banking hub' will mean people can still do financial transactions face to face in Rutland's county town.

Cash Access UK, the organisation set up to protect nationwide access to cash, is due to open the hub in Oakham at 43 High Street – the former home of Lloyds Bank – in early April.

It will provide most of the banking services associated with either the major bank branches or the Post Office, but all under one roof.

Speaking at a crowded Oakham Castle presentation on Thursday, CEO of Cash Access UK, Natalie Ceeney, said: "Face-to-face banking is important to a lot of people, but with branches closing up and down the country – including here in Oakham – and as cash usage goes down and down making it uneconomical for the banks to keep their branches open, people are left without access to services.

"On the back of that, politicians of all parties have agreed that what we are doing at Cash Access UK is a good thing, and have even put in legislation that requires banks to provide suitable cash and basic bank services.

Work is underway at the High Street Hub. Image credit: LDRS.

She continued: "Initially, we set up just two banking hubs in Rochford in Essex and in Cambuslang in Glasgow, and three years later they have been an overwhelming success, so that now by the end of 2024 we have more than one hundred hubs throughout the United Kingdom and 200-300 in two or three years' time."

Ms Ceeney went on to add that local businesses wherever a banking hub has opened have thanked them, stating that had the hub not opened they may well have left that town as they wouldn't have been able to bank their taking easily.

She also said it benefits people who are on low incomes, don't have cars and are living on a cash-income, those who don't have a computer or people who are physically disabled.

The new banking hub is not a post office so you won't be able to send parcels or buy stamps, and there are no foreign currency services. However, personal and business customers from all of the major banks can use the counter service on any day of the week.

Find the banking hub at the former home of Llods, 43 High Street, Oakham. Image credit: LDRS.

Should customers require specialist services from their specific bank, each has a certain day of the week when their representative will be at the hub: Monday will be Barclays Bank, Tuesday is Nat West Bank, Wednesday is Santander, Thursday is Lloyds Bank, and Friday is for HSBC bank.

The Oakham Banking Hub will be open Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm. No appointment is necessary, and no queuing is expected.

"We got the keys to the premises last week and our construction team are already in the building." Ms Ceeney added. "We will get it fitted out for you as quickly as we possibly can, and expect to be open by early April."

Watch her launch event speech here: