Around 1,000 cashpoint machines have disappeared from small villages and 1,000 bank branches closed over the past five years, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.

This means an increasing number of villagers have to travel to neighbouring villages or towns to take out cash. In particular, organisations representing the elderly say people should be able to find a cash machine within a five-kilometre radius of their home, the Volkskrant reported.

The figures, from the central bank and research group RBR, show the Netherlands has 450 cashpoint machines per million people, almost half the western European average of 780.

The number of bank branches has also gone down 30% and will reduce even further when Rabobank shuts almost 50% of its remaining branches.

A spokesman for ING said people are increasingly using internet to deal with their financial affairs, and need less cash money to spend. And a spokesman for money transport group Brinks told the paper cashpoint machines are seen by banks as too expensive to operate.