Lanarkshire has lost nearly 100 cash machines in less than four years.
Our sister paper the Scottish Daily Express teamed up with Swedish banking and services provider, Intergiro, to look at data on ATM closures in each UK constituency from House of Commons Library.
In July 2018, Lanarkshire had 651 cash machines but the total had fallen to 561 by February 2022.
The decline was even steeper for free-to-use ATMs, falling from 555 in July 2018 to 426 in February this year.
Scotland has lost more than a thousand cash machines in that time, with Glasgow Central being hit with the highest rate and the most outside London.
In July 2018, Scotland had 6154 cash machines but the total had fallen to just 5106 by February 2022. The decline for free-to-use ATMs, saw the figure fall from 5283 to just 4047.
The problem was this week highlighted by Age Concern Scotland who reportedly said the move towards a cashless society disadvantages the elderly who tend to be on lower incomes.
Adam Stachura, head of policy and communications for the charity, told the Scottish Express that half a million people in Scotland are solely reliant on cash.
He said: “These closures often hit older customers hardest, leaving them cut off from vital services and making it harder for them to manage their money.
"People who are most reliant on bank branches and free to use ATMs tend to be older or on low incomes, and may not have internet access or find it easy to travel further than their local branch to do their banking.
“Banks must consider the needs of all their customers and do much more to support them.
"As we battle through this cost of living crisis it is more important than ever that older people can access their money as cash, for free, and use it whenever they need to.”
Lanarkshire has lost 90 ATMs since 2018, including 129 free-to-use ATMs.
Overall, Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, has lost 188 ATMs and 226 free-to-use ATMs, including those that have introduced fees.
Leafy East Renfrewshire in the southern suburbs of Glasgow now has fewer than 50 free-to-use ATMs.
Despite the surging popularity of contactless payments, only a third (35 per cent) of people are not using an ATM machine monthly according to other recent figures, despite a decline in use during the height of the pandemic.
Older generations – those aged 40-plus - still continue to use ATMs on a regular basis while those aged under 30 are more likely to use digital payment methods than use cash.
It comes as digital banking is on the rise, with Intergiro CEO Nick Root believes that this is just one part of a larger trend towards companies embedding financial services into their platform and products.
He believes that this trend will continue to grow in the coming years, as more and more companies seek to provide their customers with integrated financial services.
Mr Root said: "As we move into 2023, we anticipate that the trend of embedded finance will continue to grow rapidly.
"More and more companies are offering comprehensive suite of embedded finance APIs, reducing the barriers to entry for new companies wanting to provide innovative financial services to their target market, catering specifically to their customers’ needs.”
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