Reduced banking hours

Bosses at Santander have insisted the bank remains committed to Rutherglen, despite announcing plans to cut back on opening hours.

From this summer, branches will close at 3pm instead of 4.30pm, with many also switching to only being open until lunchtime on a Saturday. Management say the changes are in response to how people handle their banking these days, and that the new format will not result in any redundancies.

Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey has written to Santander to question its commitment to the area.

Correspondence between the MSP and the banking group, which shut a number of branches last year, shows they claim they will remain in Rutherglen in the long term.

Ms Haughey stated: “I am concerned that these changes to opening hours may be the start of a process whereby the Rutherglen branch closes in the near future.

“I would like to seek your assurances that this is not the case, and that Santander remain firmly committed to Rutherglen.

“Additionally, I note within Mr Owen’s email that there will be ‘significant new opportunities for branch colleagues, who will receive additional training to help them support customers over the phone, as well as in branch’.

“I would be grateful if you could confirm that this therefore means that there will be no redundancies as part of this change, that no staff are being asked to redeploy to other branches, and there are no changes to the hours that staff work.”

In reply, management confirmed that “branches remain an important way of providing a service to our customers and we remain committed to Rutherglen. As part of improving our service more colleagues who currently only support our customers in branch, will also be able to do so over the phone, after they receive the appropriate training.

“This change will also broaden the skills set of many of our colleagues, and I can confirm that there will be no redundancies, redeployment, or reduction in the working hours as a result of these changes.”

The changes will take effect from July 18.

Richard Owen, head of branches at Santander said: “These changes will enable us to maintain our existing branch network while providing significant additional capacity to help customers who want to talk to us by phone.”