Swiss Money Map 2022 : A spatial analysis of cash access points in Switzerland

This study examines the spatial distribution of cash machines (ATMs) and bank branches in Switzerland. We estimate actual travel distances and times to the closest cash withdrawal point based on the Swiss road network. We find that Swiss residents overall have easy access to cash: They live within an average travel distance of 1.1 km to an ATM and of 1.6 km to a bank branch. Average travel time to the nearest ATM and bank branch is 3.6 and 4.1 minutes, respectively. Travel distances and times decrease with the size of the municipality. Small, urban characterized cantons such as Basel-City and Geneva exhibit very short travel distances and times to the closest cash access point, whereas both these variables tend to increase in cantons with more rural attributes. Roughly two third and half of the population reside within a range of 1 km to the closest ATM and bank branch, with travel times less than 5 minutes to the closest ATM and bank branch for 82% and 74% of the population, respectively. Half of the people reach an ATM (bank branch) within 300 m (900 m) in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants compared to 2.1 km (3 km) in communities with fewer than 2,000 residents.Cash access is more restricted in some areas: Only 2.6% (around 225,000 residents) and 4.9% (around 420,000 residents) of the population need to travel more than 5 km to reach the closest ATM and brank branch. These shares gradually increase with decreasing municipality size. 61% (58%) of these residents live in municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants and 82% (80%) in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants to the next ATM (bank branch). The ATM and bank branch network appears to be relatively dense in many parts of the country. Only a small share of people in each municipality resides more than 5 km away from the nearest ATM and bank branch. More than 40% of the population in 236 and 368 municipalities have to travel more than 5 km to reach the next ATM and bank branch, respectively (i.e., 10.9% and 16.9% of all 2,172 municipalities). In these municipalities, the number of inhabitants is rather small, with an average (median) number of 579 (445) regarding ATMs and of 896 (631) regarding bank branches.We find that 921 (42.4%) and 1,172 (54.0%) of the municipalities in Switzerland are not equipped with an ATM and bank branch, respectively. The share of municipalities with no ATM and bank branch is very high in the cantons Basel-Land, Vaud, Jura, and Geneva. The share of people with more than 5 km travel distance is around 15 and 18 percentage points higher in non-ATM and non-bank branch municipalities (non-ATM: 16.3%; non-bank branch: 19.9%) compared to munic-ipalities with ATM and bank branch (non-ATM: 1.2%; non-bank branch: 1.7%). The average dis-tance to the closest ATM (bank branch) is 3.4 km (3.7 km) in municipalities without an ATM (bank branch) compared to 0.9 km (1.1 km) in municipalities with ATM (bank branch)