Your bank manager will see you now... using Skype

ONLINE chats are increasingly replacing face-to-face meetings with bank staff, sparking fears of branch closures.

last year, the number of customer conversations via video calls, similar to Skype or FaceTime, doubled to 130,000.

Banks also held 4.4million web messenger chats with account holders – 510 an hour. The data, from the British Bankers’ association (BBA), shows 536 branches were fitted with video conference facilities in 2016. in the same year, a similar number of branches were closed, and another 460 will be shutting their doors this year.

RBS, NATWEST, HSBC, lloyds, Halifax, Clydesdale, yorkshire Bank and TSB are among those to announce closures in 2017. in a report called The Way We Bank now, the BBA says: ‘Customers are increasingly adopting web and video chat to contact to their bank, giving them access on their sofa, on the go or at work.’

Critics fear banks are investing in this technology so they can accelerate plans to close down branches, which are expensive to run. But banks say footfall in branches is plunging as people choose to bank online and on their mobiles. More than a third of UK adults – 19.6million – now use banking apps. They make up two-thirds of all current account interactions.

Janet Morrison, of charity independent age, warned the move to ‘digital by default’ banking could hit older people. ‘Banks must ensure that customers can access services using their preferred method of communication,’ she said.