NatWest and RBS to close 19 more bank branches next year

NatWest will close more branches next year, adding to the thousands of banks that have disappeared from British high streets.

It will shut a further 19 branches as more customers use online banking, in the latest blow to those who rely on face-to-face services.

Thousands of branches have been axed over the last few years and more than 500 have closed in 2023.

The closures mainly affect elderly and vulnerable people, as well as small businesses that need easy access to cash.

It said yesterday it plans to close 18 NatWest branches in February and March next year.

Closures: NatWest will shut a further 19 branches as more customers use online banking, in the latest blow to those who rely on face-to-face services

Five are in London, while Birmingham, Liverpool and Bradford are among the other cities that will be affected.

An RBS site in Glasgow is also marked for closure but it will stay open until November 2024.

RBS and NatWest, which are part-taxpayer owned after being bailed out in the financial crisis, were earlier this year named and shamed as being among the worst offenders for bank closures.

RBS has closed 451 branches, which is more than 80 per cent of its network, since 2015, while NatWest has shuttered 61.8 per cent of its locations.

By the end of 2023, the bank will have axed 838 sites in eight years.

Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said: ‘The continuing avalanche of closures means that by the end of this year there will be considerably fewer opportunities for face-to-face banking than there were even just a couple of years ago.

‘Older people living in rural and semi-rural areas are likely to be the hardest-hit but those in towns and cities are not immune.

‘The reality is that for almost everyone, it is getting progressively harder to bank face to face, potentially leaving millions of older people who are not online high and dry.’ In September, analysis by the Mail on Sunday revealed that more than 2.2m Britons live in a constituency without a single bank.

Millions of people are living in a so-called banking desert as 23 constituencies do not have one branch, figures by Which? showed. It comes as the average number of transactions over the counter at NatWest Group branches fell 60 per cent in the four years to January 2023.

NatWest said: ‘Most of our customers are shifting to mobile and online banking, because it’s faster and easier for people to manage their financial lives.

‘We understand and recognise that digital solutions aren’t right for everyone or every situation, and that when we close branches we have to make sure that no-one is left behind.

‘We take our responsibility seriously to support the people who face challenges in moving online, so we are investing to provide them with support and alternatives that work for them.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk