Shock for townsfolk as another bank set to be axed
A SECOND major bank in less than a month has announced it is closing its Swadlincote branch.
HSBC has announced major changes to how its branches will work - and as part of this has said more than 80 will close this year.
Friday, September 17, will be the last day of trading for the Swadlincote HSBC branch in High Street.
It comes just weeks after Barclays announced it was set to shut its Midland Road branch in the town on January 29.
HSBC bosses said they were moving to a new business structure that will include full service and pop-up branches. Eighty-two UK outlets are shutting as part of the plans, including Swadlincote and Belper in Derbyshire.
Jackie Uhi, from HSBC, said: “Over the last few months, we’ve been conducting a number of pilots to test out a range of potential future branch formats at different locations to make sure we are giving customers what they want, where they want it. The direction of travel is really quite clear and this is borne out by the reduction in branch usage and increase in digital interaction that we are seeing first-hand.”
A Swadlincote resident, who did not want to be named, said it was a sad day. He said: “I can’t believe HSBC is closing down. It’s going to have a big impact on the town.
“Loads of shops have been closing down over the last few years in the town and now with the bank going it really is sad news.
“Luckily I’ve got internet banking so I’ll be OK but there’s plenty out there who don’t. With Covid, there has always been a long queue of people wanting to go into the bank. “It will be a sad loss for the town.” When the Swadlincote Barclays closes, the nearest branch will be in High Street, Burton. The closures of 63 Barclays branches comes despite the bank giant admitting some of those being closed have seen rising customer numbers.
Gareth Shaw, head of money at the consumer group Which?, said: “Communities are struggling without access to cash and vital bank services.”
A spokesman for Barclays said previously: “With more customers choosing to bank in different ways, we are carefully reducing the number of under-used branches we have.”