Changing a £20 note in Santander - NO !

maxsteam

eskbanker said:

increasingly stringent legislation and regulations came along (largely for sound reasons but inevitably causing some collateral damage)

There is no legislation or regulation to stop a bank, or anyone else, changing a £20 note into coins. There are a few rules concerning €500 notes. One difference being that it is extremely commonplace and should not arose any suspicion of criminality if you happen to meet someone carrying a £20 note.

eskbanker

maxsteam said:

eskbanker said:

increasingly stringent legislation and regulations came along (largely for sound reasons but inevitably causing some collateral damage)

There is no legislation or regulation to stop a bank, or anyone else, changing a £20 note into coins. There are a few rules concerning €500 notes. One difference being that it is extremely commonplace and should not arose any suspicion of criminality if you happen to meet someone carrying a £20 note.

As I understand it, it's nothing to do with the size of the transaction but that all such cash handling activity effectively has to go through the till, since the introduction of the Payment Services Regulations 2017.  I don't believe that there's literally something in those regulations that states in simple terms that changing money is now banned as such, but understood that the information-gathering requirements imposed by those regulations were interpreted by the banks to mean that all cash transactions now have to be either deposits to, or withdrawals from, a known and validated account.

msallen

The overwhelming majority of (if not all) high street bank branches use TCRs (teller cash recyclers), which is a bit like a miniature two way ATM under the teller's desk. Notes from each transaction are deposited into or withdrawn from this device, which is controlled by software, which in turn gets it's input parameters (i.e. is told what notes are going in/out) via the teller typing the transaction details into the system. The teller has no way of getting notes in or out without performing a transaction. Whilst some banks have an option on their system to allow "exchange only" transactions it is typically a "special" function well away from the main screens/menus that the tellers use on a daily basis and they may not even be aware of it.

maxsteam

eskbanker said:

As I understand it, it's nothing to do with the size of the transaction but that all such cash handling activity effectively has to go through the till, since the introduction of the Payment Services Regulations 2017.

The Payment Services Regulations apply to organisation providing payment services. For example, if someone designed an app to handle people's payment of fuel bills then that app and the people handling the money should comply with the regulations.

Changing a £20 note for coins is not providing a payment service.

eskbanker

maxsteam said:

eskbanker said:

As I understand it, it's nothing to do with the size of the transaction but that all such cash handling activity effectively has to go through the till, since the introduction of the Payment Services Regulations 2017.

The Payment Services Regulations apply to organisation providing payment services. For example, if someone designed an app to handle people's payment of fuel bills then that app and the people handling the money should comply with the regulations.

Changing a £20 note for coins is not providing a payment service.

I didn't say that exchanging cash like that was providing a payment service as such but was simply making the point that the PSRs (as well as other legislation and/or regulations, such as KYC/AML) introduced tighter controls on many activities including cash handling (not just for banks), which is why it's also generally no longer possible to pay cash into someone else's account in bank branches, for example.  As I said in the bit that you didn't quote, there won't be a clause explicitly prohibiting such exchanges though, so it does come down to interpretation....