Firms need someone to trust – not just an ‘app’

TWO miles south of Dudley, the small West Midlands town of Brierley Hill has become the unlikely setting for a stand-off between campaigners and a financial behemoth worth £40 billion.

Desertion by the banks has proved too much for local residents and business owners who are now teaming up to persuade Lloyds to row back on its plan to close their last high street branch.

Having lost HSBC and Barclays from the town last year, a petition to save the Lloyds outlet has garnered almost 1,000 signatures.

When a bank leaves town, the implications are wideranging. It means less cash flow in the local economy, reduced high street footfall and the risk of financial exclusion for vulnerable consumers.

Small business owners in particular still hugely value the in-person support they receive at bank branches. Many need cash deposit and withdrawal facilities on a daily basis. The further they have to travel to hand in takings, the more likely they are to keep cash on site. That makes them targets for theft.

Equally, when opening new accounts or taking on fresh lines of credit, small business owners often want to speak with someone they know and trust. Many have relationships with bank branch managers that go back years. That is not something that can be replaced by an app.

Customer behaviour is undoubtedly changing. More than 90 per cent of our members bank online. But as we have seen in recent weeks at TSB, internet banking is no silver bullet. Technical difficulties occur, sometimes with serious repercussions.

The pace of closures is staggering. Consumer group Which? puts the number of branches lost at more than 1,500 in the past three years alone. To add insult to injury, the banks are now trying to wield the axe on their cash machine networks. We are campaigning with Which? to halt these plans.

The banks that benefited from public support in the wake of the 2008 financial crash are now posting bumper profits. They should reinvest in customer service to return that support.

Lenders say demand for bank branches will soon be a thing of the past. Brierley Hill is one of many towns that say otherwise.