Access to cash in Metropolitan France

Public access to cash - Update report as at year-end 2022

Published on the 24th of July 2023

The working group on cash accessibility, under the aegis of the Cash Industry Steering Committee chaired by the Banque de France, has updated its annual census of cash dispensers in metropolitan France for 2022.

This update confirmed that cash continued to be very easily accessible nationwide in 2022: at the end of 2022, 79.2% of the population was located less than five minutes by car from an automated teller machine (ATM), and this figure rises to 92.7% if private cash dispensers and ATMs in retail outlets are taken into consideration.

A total of 73,205 ATMs and private cash dispensers were in operation in metropolitan France at the end of 2022, largely unchanged from the end of 2021.

In addition, complementary cash distribution services in retail outlets are continuing to develop. They contribute to public access to cash, particularly in rural areas. With 26,956 outlets at the end of 2022 for the four networks concerned, the number of private cash dispensers was up 3.9% over the year.

At the same time, the number of ATMs fell slightly by 3.4% in 2022, with 46,249 ATMs in operation at the end of the year, compared with 47,853 a year earlier.

This continued accessibility to cash is thanks to the distribution of ATMs nationwide being more balanced overall. More generally, the banking sector’s streamlining of the ATM network in recent years - against the backdrop of a decline in the use of cash for transactions - has been concentrated in the most densely populated and best-equipped urban areas. Cash accessibility indicators are therefore particularly stable at this stage.

For the first time, a map of cash dispensers in metropolitan France has also been published to complement this report. This tool may be used in two ways:

  • to locate on dynamic maps ATMs and cash dispensers at merchants in a given area,
  • display the number of ATMs and cash dispensers at merchants in each municipality.

The information displayed is anonymised.

Updated on the 25th of July 2024