Banks shut 10 branches each week as they flee villages
BRITAIN’S biggest banks have shut three branches every two days in the past year, figures show.
The data, which covers Lloyds, NatWest-owner Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Santander, Barclays and the Co-op, reveals the sheer scale of closures recently, with 600 disappearing in just 12 months.
Lenders behind the closures claim there is a heavy decline in demand for traditional over-thecounter services, with more and more banking online.
But campaigners argue suburbs, market towns and seaside retirement areas tend to suffer most, destroying businesses and ruining the lives of vulnerable people who rely on their local branch.
Derek French, founder of the Campaign for Community Banking Services, said: ‘Small businesses are the hardest hit – directly insofar as they are inconvenienced because they have to travel for banking services, and indirectly because customers who came to their area to bank no longer do so.
‘It’s not the only reason for the decline of our High Street, there are other reasons, but it’s a major contributing factor.’
The figures, compiled by the BBC, were revealed as a review was launched into industry-wide procedures which seek to make closures as painless as possible.
Banks last year promised to introduce protocols for closure, including a 12-week notice period and work to replace closing branches with post office services and cash machines.
It followed lobbying from thenBusiness Secretary Vince Cable and included the promise of a review 12 months on.
This is being carried out by Professor Russel Griggs, a finance expert who has promised to ensure the system ‘meets its aim of minimising the impact of bank branch closures on customers’.
Campaigners, meanwhile, are calling for more work to improve the banking services offered by the Post Office. And they would also like to see moves to introduce shared branches, where one branch offers basic services from all the major lenders.
French said banks would strongly resist this because it would be a complex task.
‘Some work has been done on this in the industry but they won’t take it to pilot stage unless the Government puts some pressure on them,’ he said.