Twelve banks face axe
TWELVE HSBC bank branches will shut in Wales in the coming months – including one in Cardiff and two in the Vale of Glamorgan – as the financial giant announces 114 closures across the UK.
The global banking brand, which made the announcedment yesterday, blamed a significant fall in customers visiting branches in person since the pandemic.
Branches will disappear from April next year in 12 towns and suburbs across Wales, including Cardiff’s branch on Rhydypenau crossroads, as well as Penarth, Cowbridge, Blackwood and Pontypool.
The list of Welsh closures, with expected closure date, is: Abergavenny – April 18 Brecon – May 9 Chepstow – June 6
Penarth – June 13 Pontypool – June 27
Port Talbot – July 11 Blackwood – July 25 Denbigh – August 8
Colwyn Bay – August 15 Cardiff Rhydypenau – August 29 Tenby – date TBC
Cowbridge – date TBC
Jackie Uhi, HSBC UK’s managing director of UK distribution, said: “People are changing the way they bank and footfall in many branches is at an all-time low, with no signs of it returning. Banking remotely is becoming the norm for the vast majority of us.”
HSBC has said that around 100 staff could leave the bank as a result of plans to axe 114 UK branches from April next year.
The group stressed that it hopes to redeploy all its employees at affected branches to other roles within HSBC, either to other branches or to a different position. It plans to speak to all staff in the branches due to close, but it estimates that around 100 employees could leave.
HSBC isn’t the only business slimming down its physical banks – NatWest is also set to close 43 bank branches in the UK, while Halifax and Lloyds said they would be shutting 66 more bank branches this year and into 2023.