How do we access our money?
Banks have long been mainstays of our high streets. They are the British character made real; prudence, sense and solidity shaped from sandstone and glass; landmark buildings whose marbled halls silenced awed children and made nervous anyone asking for a loan or a mortgage.
Nowadays grand banking buildings are more likely home to a coffee shop or a restaurant as our financial behemoths downsized.
And now it looks like that journey will be taken to its ultimate destination, with bank branches disappearing for good.
Which? research has found that the acceleration of banking closures is increasing with 60 disappearing from our streets every month – with Natwest/RBS closing the most. All in all a total of 2868 branches will have vanished from high streets between 2015 and the end of this year.
Which is alarming news for customers as many people – the disabled, the elderly, small businesses among them – are being left without proper access to services.
Of course banks say closures are done purely on a commercial basis because more people are doing their financial business online.
They point to Post Offices and mobile banking trucks as alternatives – though in some cases they don’t have the same range of services or convenience as branches. Then there are plenty of people who cannot or do not want to use online services and are rightly concerned about scams and potential fraud. And on top of it all, many ATMs are also disappearing because of changes to the LINK system, leaving many communities with no access to cash at all. This is despite the fact that an estimated 2.7 million people are almost totally reliant on cash to pay for the things they need. Banks seem to have forgotten that they offer more to communities than just a place to keep money. They are part of the the social fabric of cities, towns and villages. They have also appear to have forgotten that its customers who keep them in business – it’s time they remembered.
Please send your consumer questions to me at askalex@which.co.uk