Bank branch closures accelerate with 399 confirmed already in 2015
This article tells us: Bank branches across the country are increasingly closing their doors to customers, leaving communities reliant on Post Offices and banks located miles from where they live. The Campaign for Community Banking Services (CCBS), a lobby group, said that the number of bank branch closures this year would “greatly exceed” 2014 levels, which saw 479 closures. This year, 399 bank closures have so far been announced, excluding HSBC’s planned closures, and with another six months left of the year the figure is likely to climb. Derek French, director at CCBS, said that more than 1,380 communities were now without a bank branch. “Voluntary pledges by three of the ‘Big Four’ banks (RBS, Lloyds and Barclays) to keep open the ‘last bank in town’ protected 70pc of sole bank communities more than one mile from an alternative bank, but the banks all cancelled their pledges last year”. I wonder if these ongoing closure programmes will reignite a debate for community banking to be trialled in areas where business for the main banks is not booming?