Post Office made one shared counter for Britain's banks

In 2015, GOV.UK reported that banks, consumer groups and government agreed a protocol for branch closures. The alternatives explicitly included Post Office branches and mobile banking, and the release said the Post Office had more than 11,500 branches.

The clever part was standardization. GOV.UK said the BBA, banks and Post Office were negotiating to standardize counter services for bank customers, including small businesses. A fragmented bank-by-bank access problem became one shared operating agreement.

By the 2022 Banking Framework 3 announcement, Post Office said customers of 30 bank and building society brands could keep withdrawing and depositing cash, depositing cheques and making balance queries at 11,500 branches. It said 99.7% of the population lived within three miles of a Post Office.

Share one retail counter network

It used a dense retail network that already handled queues, cash and identity-sensitive services.

Banks could close weak branches while still offering routine over-the-counter access.

Customers kept a human cash counter without needing to learn a new fintech interface.

Standardization made one counter usable across many bank brands.

When every incumbent needs the same low-frequency physical service, a neutral shared counter can beat duplicate proprietary branches.

Post Office said the 2023–2025 framework covered 30 bank and building society brands, 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers, and 11,500 branches. It also reported almost 140 million cash transactions in 2020 and almost 150 million in 2021, evidence that the shared-counter idea became operational infrastructure rather than a small pilot.