Scottish bank notes quietly phased out as Glasgow ATMs dispense English tenners
Scottish banknotes are being quietly phased out, a Sunday Mail investigation has revealed.
We have uncovered official data which shows our unique cash - a symbol of Scotland's national identity and banking heritage - is being stripped out of circulation at four times the rate of English branded currency.
We found ATMs across the country now giving Bank of England tenners and twenties. Politicians and campaigners have reacted angrily to our findings.
Ex-Justice Secretary and Alba Party leader Kenny MacAskill said: 'The Scottish banks must explain why the decline in Scottish bank notes in circulation has fallen four times as fast as equivalent notes south of the border.
'If things continue as they are, one day we might reach the ridiculous point where people in Scotland are simply unable to get Scottish bank notes from cash machines at all.
'That would be totally unacceptable.
'Scottish bank notes are a matter of pride for Scots and the banks must provide reassurance that they are not being phased out against the expressed wishes of their customers.'
The Bank of Scotland was the first bank in Europe to issue paper money in 1695.
But Bank of England data shows the value of Scottish notes in circulation has slumped by nearly a fifth since 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic hit and saw an increase in contactless card payments.
Overall, it means a fall of 16 per cent in real-terms in just five years - a decline which is four times faster than Bank of England notes which have dropped by just 4 per cent.
People across Scotland have reported to us a rise in cash machines dispensing English notes rather than Scottish currency.
We visited three cashpoints in Glasgow, including an ATM at Sainsbury's on Gordon Street opposite Central Station and two other machines in the west end.
Our reporter took out £90 - with £80 dispensed as Bank of England notes and just £10 as Scottish notes, in the form of two Clydesdale Bank fivers.
The total value of Scottish bank notes in circulation - including in people's wallets, shop tills and in the wider economy as well in ATMs and bank branches - had slipped below £5billion for the first time since November 2020.
The value of Scottish notes held in ATMs and bank branches fell from half a billion pounds in 2017 to just £240million last year - a massive real-terms cut of 63 per cent.
Ron Delnevo, who chairs the Payment Choice Alliance which campaigns on retaining the right to cash, said: 'There's no doubt that having Scottish notes is an expensive business for the banks.
'There's also the issue that whilst English notes are always accepted in Scotland, Scottish notes aren't always accepted in England - and the further south you go, the more problems you get.
'I would guess we're going to, more and more, see Scottish notes moving out of things like ATMs.'
Three banks in Scotland issue Scottish bank notes - Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank.
The 2008 financial crisis led to a series of acquisitions and mergers in the UK banking sector in which Scottish banks were absorbed into larger UK-wide entities.
Bank of Scotland, which had already merged with Halifax in 2001, was taken over by London-headquartered Lloyds Bank in 2009.
Clydesdale Bank merged with Virgin Money in 2018 then was acquired last year by Nationwide Building Society in a £2.3billion deal.
RBS Group, which was bailed out by taxpayers to the tune of £45billion in 2008 and partly owned by the UK Government for 17 years, was rebranded NatWest Group in 2020.
Lloyd Banking Group said it had no plans to stop issuing Bank of Scotland notes and stated it printed notes based on 'market demand'.
Asked if there was an explicit policy to phase-out Clydesdale Bank notes, a spokesperson for Virgin Money said: 'No, we continue to issue notes to meet demand.'
NatWest Group, which includes RBS, was also approached for comment.
Delnevo added: 'We're being pushed towards a cashless society despite the fact people don't want it.
'We did a poll recently and 71 percent of people, including Scots and people in England and Wales, want a law passed guaranteeing their cash will be accepted.
'When LINK, the ATM network, did a survey, they found over 80 per cent wanted to retain the option of using cash. There's no desire amongst the public to see a cashless society.
'But there are whole areas of Scotland that have been completely denuded of bank branches and bank ATMs and it's very hard to get Scottish notes.
'People's cash access in these parts of the country is hanging by a thread.'
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He used one example of Campbeltown in Argyll and Bute where there is a single bank branch, run by Virgin Money.
He added: 'Apart from that, there wasn't another bank branch within 50 miles, and this was on the Scottish mainland.'
Some of the most vulnerable groups in the country rely on cash, including many people with disabilities - either because they do not have access to a debit card, or because someone else controls their money.
Delnevo added: 'It's a massive problem. There are 16million disabled people in the UK, 13million older people over 65.
'There are 4million people living in abusive households and cash is an escape route because they can use cash secretly whereas they can't do that with debit cards or credit cards.
'Millions of people would be impacted by the loss of cash.'
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