Biggest banks have shut half of their branches

THE five biggest banks have closed more than half their branches in just eight years, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Lenders have taken the axe to their bricks-and-mortar network as households turn to digital banking. However, branches are still vital for the vulnerable, the elderly and those who need face-to-face advice.

Critics have lambasted financial giants for leaving swathes of society with little access to basic banking services.

Physical locations are set to become even more important during the cost of living crunch, MPs said, with family budgets under pressure.

Data collected by the Mail showed that the biggest banks – Lloyds, Barclays, NatWest, HSBC and Santander – had a combined 7,553 branches in 2015. But according to analysis of figures from consumer champions Which? they have shuttered or announced plans to close 4,294 of them – 57 per cent – since 2015.

HSBC has cut its branch network from around 1,070 to 327 – a decline of 69 per cent. Barclays has shut 67 per cent and NatWest 64 per cent.

Conservative MP Alexander Stafford, who sits on the allparty group for fair business banking, said: ‘It is absolutely disgraceful that these banks are pulling up their drawbridges for British customers when we need them the most. Not only does it limit access to essential services, but it cuts jobs when we need them badly.

‘With HSBC closing so many branches, one has to ask whether they really care about customers at all as it does not seem that way.’

The disappearance of banks from high streets has left many communities with little access to cash. Which? said last week that a total of 5,162 branches owned by the big five and others had closed since January 2015 with a further 206 set to close next year.

HSBC is planning to shut 114 of its branches while NatWest is axing 42. Lloyds is closing 17 under its own brand and the

Halifax brand. Jenny Ross, money editor at Which?, said: ‘Cash remains a vital tool to pay or manage finances for millions across the country, yet access to it has been hit by a slew of bank branch and ATM closures.’

Calling on the Government to introduce legislation to ‘protect cash’, she added: ‘People [must not] have to fork out to get hold of their own money.’

Jackie Uhi, HSBC’s managing director of UK distribution, said the decision to close a branch ‘is never easy or taken lightly’.

She added that HSBC was committed to ‘supporting the UK’s new banking hubs and other community access to cash initiatives’.

The other banks all said that branches are being used by too few people, and that they are committed to supporting customers as they shutter the quietest locations.

‘Pulling up the drawbridges’