RBS rejects MPS’ calls to reconsider closures
● Calls for review of bank regulations after executives fail to impress MPS
Royal Bank of Scotland executives have rejected calls from MPS to reconsider a wave of branch closures.
Senior RBS figures were summoned before the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee yesterday to explain plans to shut 62 branches in Scotland.
They were unable to point to any consultation carried out before the announcement.
The SNP’S Westminster leader Ian Blackford said regulations may have to change in future to ensure rural communities are not left without vital services.
Banking regulations may have to be changed to ensure that rural communities are not left without vital services, the SNP’S Westminster leader has said after Royal Bank of Scotland executives rejected calls from MPS to reconsider a wave of branch closures.
Members of the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee said they were left disappointed by the answers given by two senior RBS figures summoned to explain the bank’s proposed closure of 62 branches in Scotland.
Jane Howard, managing director of personal banking, and Les Matheson, chief executive of personal and business banking, insisted RBS is responding to changes in customer behaviour, including a rise in digital banking. They admitted savings from the planned closures would amount to just £9.5 million, and said the branches were not being axed to save money.
The executives were also unable to point to any consultation carried out by the bank before the announcement.
Committee chairman Pete Wishart told the executives he had never experienced “such an overwhelming negative response to a single issue in my 17 years as a Member of Parliament”.
Mr Matheson told MPS: “We understand that customers are concerned about the change, that customers find change difficult, and we are committed to helping them through that process, and we have lots of ways of doing that.”
Ian Blackford, the SNP’S leader at Westminster and a former fund manager, said the government’s Access to Banking Code may have to be beefed up to stop banks from pulling out of rural communities.
He said: “If we accept that there’s an importance in making sure that we’ve got financial inclusion, and we’ve got access to banking, then you need that physical presence for people to make use of that to its fullest extent. That has to be something that we can address through regulation.”
The UK government continues to hold a 70 per cent stake in RBS after bailing it out with £45 billion of public money during the financial crisis.
Mr Blackford said RBS could be “forced” to change its mind on the closures, saying: “Why did we save RBS if they are to be allowed to walk away from these responsibilities? The government have got to hold them to account.”
Following the session, Mr Wishart said RBS’ response had been “unsatisfactory”, adding: “They seem to not be listening to the deep concerns from communities right across Scotland over their branch closure programme.”
Scottish Conservative MP John Lamont, a committee member, said the evidence from RBS was “not good enough”.
Some 13 rural communities will be left with no bank at all once the closures go ahead. One is the Hebridean island of Barra, where residents will have to take a ferry to get to their nearest bank branch.
MPS argue that Post Offices and mobile banks cannot provide the same cash-handling services small businesses and charities rely on.