Bank branch closures ‘will see money under beds’

People will soon be “putting money under the bed” for safe keeping due to the speed of bank branch closures across the UK, MPS have heard.

SNP MP Lisa Cameron’s warning came amid calls to force banks to bring forward solutions to help communities if they failed to voluntarily do so.

Labour’s Ruth Smeeth added there had only been “silence” from the banking sector, with a need to ensure they were “working in everyone’s interests, not just their own”.

The UK’S four big high street banks closed, or announced plans to shut, almost 1,000 branches during 2017.

The banks blamed the advance of technology, with customers turning to the internet and smartphones for day-to-day banking.

The pace of the closures has attracted widespread concern, with MPS calling for the “vital service” of community banking to remain in place.

Speaking in the Commons, Dr Cameron said: “Soon there’ll be no banks, residents right around most of our towns will be resorting to putting money behind the bed or under the bed again just as we had to in my grandmother’s day.”