How banks are shutting 60 branches each month
BANKS have been accused of abandoning their customers as brutal cuts have led to the closure of 60 branches every month.
An unprecedented number of branches are due to shut this year as the largest players seek to cut costs by driving their customers online. Already 670 are due to be axed, and this figure likely to rise.
Lenders have closed or unveiled plans to shut 2,868 outlets since 2015 – working out as 60 every month, according to consumer group Which?
Bosses claim that they are merely following customers as more and more go online for basic financial services.
But critics argue that lenders are abandoning isolated towns and villages where vulnerable people and shopkeepers need them most.
Gareth Shaw of Which? said: ‘Bank branch closures are happening at an alarming rate,
‘Closing at an alarming rate’
stripping customers and communities of access to the financial services they need.
‘While the decision is clearly a commercial one for a bank to take, it is also crucial that banks do recognise the needs of the communities they serve.’
Which? found that Natwest owner Royal Bank of Scotland has announced the most closures since 2015, at 1,023.
This was followed by Lloyds with 508; HSBC with 440; and Barclays with 243.
RBS, Lloyds and Barclays have not ruled out further cuts, although HSBC has said it is now happy with the size of its network. Santander has got rid of 169 outlets, the Co-op Bank has axed 154, and 134 have been shut by the owner of Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks. TSB has slimmed down its network by 82.
The rest are mostly smaller cuts by building societies. So far 670 closures have been announced for this year and, with further cuts likely, the total being shut is expected to surpass 2017’s record of 879.
The importance of branches was highlighted by an IT disaster at TSB in April which left 1.9million customers unable to access online banking. It led to large queues forming outside the lender’s outlets, many of which were overwhelmed by the sudden flood of visitors.
There are also growing concerns that shutting branches could trigger a rise in fraud, as customers unused to the internet are forced online to become easy prey for crooks.
Mike Cherry of the Federation of Small Businesses said: ‘Alarmingly, we continue to see the UK’s bank branch network under attack by big banks.
‘This is not just an attack on bank branches, but an attack on access to cash. Closures, coupled with poor broadband and the removal of free cashpoints, are creating cashless communities.
‘This situation hits our already struggling high streets leading to less footfall, less cash in the local economy and less revenue for local small firms.
‘Equally, the loss of bank branches, and access to cash, hurts the most disadvantaged in our society.’
It comes after a Mail investigation revealed that banks downplay the number of visitors to make branches seem less popular than they are.
A spokesman for industry group UK Finance said that branch visits have dropped by a quarter since 2012, and that customers can use their nearest Post Office for basic banking.
He said decisions to close a branch ‘are only ever taken after all other options, such as reducing opening hours and staff numbers, have been exhausted’.