Pace of change in banking is too quick

Scotland’s banking estate has undergone radical change in recent years. The crisis that engulfed the financial sector in 2008 may have become a distant memory for some, but the ripple effects of that profligate and dangerous period are still being felt in communities up and down the land.

It led to the austerity agenda and, within corporate boardrooms, a renewed focus on cost and how services are delivered to the public.

One of the outcomes of that process – in tandem with major leaps forward in digital technologies that allow banking to be done on the move online – has been significant cuts to the physical banking network in Scotland.

Around a third of all bank branches across Tayside and Fife have closed their doors since 2010, leaving entire communities in the lurch and placing an extra burden on the isolated and vulnerable in society.

The change has sparked protests in the streets and calls for a rethink in political circles but the erosion of Scotland’s banking estate has continued nonetheless.

Now major organisations such as Angus Council are flagging serious issues around cash handling as a result of fewer places for staff to deposit takings from its operations.

It might seem a minor niggle but is further grist to the mill that the squeeze on Scotland’s banking estate is going too far, too fast. Perhaps a pause is required before irreparable damage is caused to our banking system.