‘Consult customers over bank closures’ say MSPS

Banks should be required to consult with customers, businesses and the wider community before closing local branches, a committee of MSPS has said.

Holyrood’s economy committee has called for the access to banking standard – put in place in 2015 to manage the way bank branch closures are handled – to be replaced.

In a report following an inquiry into bank closures, the committee said the standard was failing to take account of the full potential impact on the economy of closing local branches and “reflects the interests of the banks rather than the needs of customers and businesses”.

It added: “Whatever is put in place in the future, the access to banking standard is not succeeding in its current form and should be replaced with a statutory model which includes the requirement to consult before a decision is made to close a branch.”

MSPS called on the UK government to consider whether an independent impact assessment should be carried out before a bank closes a branch.

The committee inquiry was launched in the wake of RBS’ decision to shut at least 52 branches across the country, with ten more under review.