Post Office faces ATM questions

The Treasury select committee is to question senior Post Office officials next month over the number of fee-paying cash machines at post offices, the Guardian reports.

As part of the committee's investigation into cash machine charges, MPs are likely to challenge the compatibility of such ATMs located in post offices with the government's aim to tackle financial exclusion.

Around 1,850 cash machines of the 2,500 situated in post office branches are thought to charge a fee for withdrawals.

Given the central role afforded to the Post Office in helping the government reduce the number of people without bank accounts in the UK, the committee is concerned that poorer sections of the community are being penalised by cash machine charges at post offices.

Committee John McFall said the he wanted to examine how the government's principles on financial exclusion are being "adhered to and upheld".

The non-executive chairman of the Post Office, Sir Mike Hodgkinson; chief operating officer, Dave Miller; and director of banking and financial services, Graham Halliday, will attend the hearing on February 10.