Lifeline for axed RBS branches
RBS is set to stage a U-turn on controversial branch closures after public outcry.
Two months ago the statebacked bank announced plans to shut 62 branches north of the Border.
Some are lifeline branches in rural villages and towns.
If their closure were to go ahead as planned this summer, it would spell the end of high street banking for many isolated communities.
But after pressure from local campaigners, sources say some of the most remote RBS banks may have been given a reprieve.
Yesterday, a source close to the talks to save the branches said: ‘A reprieve for some of the branches is likely.’
ROYAL Bank of Scotland is set to stage a U-turn on controversial branch closures after a public outcry.
Some of the country’s most remote branches could be given a last-minute reprieve after bosses went back to the drawing board.
They faced the heaviest pressure over branches in rural areas, including Campbeltown, Argyll, and on the Isle of Barra.
An announcement from the bank revealing the dramatic change in stance is expected later this week.
It comes just two months after majority taxpayer-owned RBS announced that cost-cutting measures meant the closure of 62 lifeline branches in Scotland.
After relentless campaigns run by customers in the affected areas, some of the most vital branches could now be saved from the axe.
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, claimed he was ‘very close’ to reaching a deal with RBS bosses that could see some banks given a reprieve.
Mr Blackford has been in talks with the bank after it announced it was shutting branches as part of wider closure plans.
RBS has insisted it is responding to changes in customer behaviour, including a rise in digital banking.
But the branches under threat include some in remote and rural communities where there is only one bank.
And yesterday a source close to the talks to save the branches said: ‘A reprieve for some of the branches is likely and there will be an announcement later this week.’
Mr Blackford told the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland: ‘I expect a positive announcement.’
The MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber said many of the affected branches provided ‘vital’ local services, as he accused the UK Government of ‘failing to lift a finger’ to save them.
He said he resorted to ‘bypassing’ the Prime Minister and talking directly to RBS chiefs about the plans, in a bid to ensure community concerns are heard.
Mr Blackford said: ‘What I’ve tried to put across and what other colleagues have tried to put across is the very real threat to a number of communities, in particular where they have been talking about closing the last bank in town.
‘And I’ve been encouraged by the positive nature of the talks we’ve been having. I hope we are very close to a resolution that can give some hope to a number of communities that branches can remain open.’
He added: ‘We’re at the stage that in principle we recognise that something has to be done in order to keep a number of bank branches open.’
But Labour and the Tories claimed it was the all-party Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster that was responsible for the U-turn.
Colin Clark, Tory MP for Gordon, said: ‘Ian Blackford seems to be undermining the work the committee has done by trying to get the headline on it.’
Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow Scottish secretary Lesley Laird hit out, saying: ‘I am astounded that Ian Blackford is cutting across a live investigation being undertaken by the Scottish Select Committee into RBS and its proposals to close vital high-street bank branches.’
Pat Rafferty of the Unite Scotland union said it ‘welcomes what appears to be a change of heart by those at the top of RBS to reverse some of its bank closures’.
Highland SNP councillor Kirsteen Currie, who has campaigned for lifeline branches, said: ‘They are a publicly owned entity. They should be making these branches useful community assets instead of trying to come up with ways to close them down.’
RBS said the closures were due to more customers banking online.But campaigners say the branches provide a lifeline to people and small businesses, especially in rural areas.
An RBS spokesman declined to comment last night.
‘Very real threat to communities’
GORDON Brown said last year that not enough has been done since the 2008 financial crash to clean up the banking industry.
His point is surely borne out by RBS – bailed out by the Labour Government – which despite being state-owned has treated customers with brazen contempt. Yesterday there were disturbing allegations from whistleblowers that its staff were routinely trained to forge customers’ signatures.
In addition, scores of lifeline branches in rural areas faced the axe, sparking widespread protest and campaigns to highlight the injustice.
For once, people power has compelled RBS to think again, and a reprieve for some of the doomed banks is likely to be revealed this week. The detail is still under wraps and it remains to be seen how many communities will see their local branches saved from swingeing cuts.
But there is evidence of a change in stance after intense pressure from local campaigners, who refused to let RBS chiefs off the hook.
There was an unedifying tug-of-war yesterday among MPs scrambling to take the credit – with Nationalist MP Ian Blackford the most vocal among them.
Labour’s shadow Scottish secretary Lesley Laird criticised Mr Blackford for ‘cutting across a live investigation being undertaken by the Scottish Select Committee into RBS’.
The tribalism of attention-seeking MPs should not be allowed to distract from the hard work of the campaigners who fought for so long against branch closures.
They should remember it is the voice of the customer – for so long traduced and ignored by profit-hungry big banks – that has forced RBS into a long overdue and highly welcome U-turn.