Financial Services

RBS announces plan to close 259 branches across UK

Bank is latest UK lender to announce branch closures and job cuts

A total of 62 RBS branches and 197 NatWest outlets will be closed by mid-2018, and 1,000 roles will be affected. Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA Wire

Fri Dec 1 2017 - 15:31

Royal Bank of Scotland is to close 259 branches resulting in 680 job losses after the state-backed lender said more people were choosing to bank online or on mobile. The bank, still 72 per cent owned by the UK taxpayer, is the third this week to announce branch closures and job cuts, following Lloyds and Yorkshire Building Society.

A total of 62 RBS branches and 197 NatWest outlets will be closed by mid-2018 as part of the move, and 1,000 roles will be affected. However, RBS hopes to limit the number of redundancies to 680 by redeploying the remaining staff.

An RBS spokesman said: “More and more of our customers are choosing to do their everyday banking online or on mobile. Since 2014 the number of customers using our branches across the UK has fallen by 40 per cent, and mobile transactions have increased by 73 per cent over the same period.

“Over 5 million customers now use our mobile banking app, and one in five only bank with us digitally.”

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However, union Unite described the move as a “betrayal” and criticised the British government for allowing the closures to proceed. The union’s national officer Rob MacGregor also said that the move could effectively signal the end of banking in branches.

Decimate

“The Royal Bank of Scotland has decided to decimate its bank branch network. Now serious questions need to be asked about whether these closures mark the end of branch network banking.

“This announcement will forever change the face of banking in this country, resulting in over 1,000 staff losing their jobs and hundreds of high streets without any banking facilities. Why is the government signing off this alarming branch-closure programme?”

RBS insisted it was providing customers with “more ways to bank than ever before”.

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