RBS executives unmoved by MPS’ anger at impact of bank branch closures
RBS chief executive Ross Mcewan stood firm in the face of anger from MPS during a showdown at Westminster over a slew of branch closures hitting dozens of isolated rural communities.
Mr Mcewan was accused of giving “pathetic” answers to the Commons Scottish affairs committee after telling MPS the publicly-owned bank will press ahead with plans to close up to 62 branches across Scotland. The RBS chief pledged that no further closures would be considered until at least 2020, but said shutting dozens of branches this year was the “best way of going forward” as customers switch to online banking in greater numbers.
He was accused “completely misunderstanding” the needs of rural communities where many of the closures will leave towns and villages without any bank branch.
During questioning, it was claimed that an independent reviewer due to begin work next month to assess the viability of ten branches given a reprieve until the end of the year has yet to be appointed, and that one organisation which had been set to take on the work has now pulled out.
And the bank denied claims by unions that more than 100 staff had been issued with compulsory redundancy notices, saying a maximum of 12 employees would lose their jobs if they could not be redeployed elsewhere within RBS.
The bank, which is 72 per cent owned by the government, announced in December it would close 62 branches across Scotland, later giving a temporary reprieve to ten of those until the end of 2018 for review.
Committee convener Pete Wishart asked how Mr Mcewan would respond to the “disappointment, frustration and anger” of those communities who would lose their local facility.
And Borders MP John Lamont told RBS executives: “There’s a complete misunderstanding by the bank of how rural communities operate and how they have a dependency on small branches, and the impact that your decision to close these branches is going to have if they don’t have mobile signal, if they don’t have broadband.
“I think you’ve completely misunderstood how many of your customers do their banking.”
Mr Mcewan said he accepted “change is absolutely difficult”, adding “I do recognise that customers are very disappointedthattheirlocalbranch is closing”.
He said: “We’ve not taken any of these closure decisions lightly. Let’s be clear, when we look at our customer behaviour the evidence is stark.
“Branch use has fallen dramatically – the great majority of our customers want to bank when it suits them and at all hours.
“We have to respond to changing trends and we have to invest in a range of services to give customers what they want and what they expect.”
Mr Mcewan added that he was “comfortable with the size of our branch network in Scotland”.
RBS executives told MPS that the bank was maintaining more than 2,000 points of physical contact for customers affected by closures to conduct banking. However, these will include so-called “community bankers” who cannot handle cash or discuss financial products, and are deployed in affected communities to direct customers to online services or the next closest branch.
Mr Lamont said RBS’ evi- dence had been “pathetic”, and SNP MP Deidre Brock said the session had been “disappointing”.
Labour committee member Ged Killen said: “The answers given by Mr Mcewan to the committee this morning were vague when we wanted specifics and focused on specifics when we asked for the bigger picture.
“Labour has been clear that the RBS branch closure programme must be halted and reversed. It is wishful thinking on RBS’S part to think that online, telephone and mobile banking can fill the gap left by lost branches.”
Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine welcomed Mr Mcewan’s willingness to discuss proposals from her party for banking “hubs” to be set up in villages where the last branch is closed, but RBS executives said the best solution remained to send customers to bank at the nearest Post Office.
MPS were also told that, contrary to claims by the Unite union that there would be 179 compulsory job cuts, there would be a maximum of 12 compulsory redundancies at the affected branches. Unite Scotland regional organiser Lyn Turner claimed RBS was “the bank which never listens”.