NatWest branches to close
SIX NatWest branches across Birmingham and Solihull will close by next summer.
The company has announced the revamp of its branch network as part of wider plans to shut 259 NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland branches across the UK, resulting in around 680 job losses.
The branches and their closure dates are: Broad Street (February 27), National Exhibition Centre (May 15), Frederick Street in the Jewellery Quarter (May 30), Bearwood and Bilston (both June 5) and Knowle in Solihull (June 26).
The state-backed lender, which is still 72 per cent owned by British taxpayers, is the third financial institution in recent days, alongside Lloyds and Yorkshire Building Society, to announce branch closures and job cuts.
A thousand roles will be affected by the move but the group said it hoped to redeploy around 320 staff.
RBS said the way people banked with the group had changed radically over the last few years and, since 2014, the number of customers using its branches across the UK had fallen by 40 per cent. During the same period, mobile transactions have increased by 73 per cent and, in the first half of 2017, there were 1.1 billion mobile and online transactions carried out by its customers, an increase of 41 per cent since 2014.
The bank said it had extended the time between announcing the decision and the branch closures to six months to allow customers more time to consider the right banking options for them.
A taskforce has also been created to help customers navigate their way through digital banking.
Trade union Unite described the move as a “betrayal” and criticised the Government for allowing the closures to proceed. The union’s national officer Rob MacGregor also said the move could effectively signal the end of banking in branches.
He added: “The Royal Bank of Scotland has decided to decimate its bank branch network.
“This announcement will forever change the face of banking in this country resulting in over a thousand staff losing their jobs and hundreds of high streets without any banking facilities.”