BRANCHING OUT
The 19 bank branches closing in February including Belfast, Swindon and St. Ives
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HUNDREDS of bank branches are set to close this year after a whopping 45 outlets were shut in January alone.
February has 19 confirmed closures, according to tracking data from LINK, which works out as two branches shutting every three days.
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Research from consumer champion Which? found that banks and building societies across the UK have closed 6,228 branches in total since January 2015.
On average, that works out at almost two branches shutting every single day for a decade.
Which? says this is 63% of all the branches that were open when its research began.
Worryingly, banks and building societies are continuing to press ahead with closures.
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This is particularly concerning for older people who may not be banking online.
While the rate of closures has slowed, the research found that 410 bank branches shut in 2024 - more than one a day on average.
And despite it only being January, there are already 114 planned branch closures this year, with more expected to follow.
Planned bank closures
Here are all the closures planned for February.
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Lloyds bank closures: 11 planned
- Swindon – closing on February 3
- Kendal – closing on February 10
- Brecon – closing on February 11
- Cranbrook – closing on February 11
- Wadebridge – closing on February 17
- Stow-on-the-Wold – closing on February 17
- Brynmawr – closing on February 17
- St Ives – closing on February 24
- Chesham – closing on February 24
- Liskeard – closing on February 24
- Kenilworth – closing on February 24
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Halifax bank closures: 5 planned
- Thetford – closing on February 4
- Belfast (Castle Court) – closing on February 4
- Kendal – closing on February 10
- Belfast (Connswater Shopping Centre) – closing on February 10
- Gillingham – closing on February 11
Bank of Scotland closures: 3 planned
- Golspie – closing on February 4
- Linlithgow – closing on February 18
- North Berwick – closing on February 3
Which banks have closed the most branches?
Which?'s research found that the NatWest Group has been the worst offender so far, closing 1,431 branches across NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Group since its research began.
Lloyds Banking Group, which comprises Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, closed down 1,252 of its premises.
But Barclays customers have been hardest hit overall, with 1,230 sites closed.
Region makes a big difference in terms of whether you want access to a banking service in person. For instance, Which? has identified 30 constituencies that have no bank branches left at all.
These include:
- Barnsley South
- Bolton West
- Bradford South
- Central Suffolk and North Ipswich
- Chatham and Ayelsford
- Chester South and Eddisbury
- Colne Valley
- Dagenham and Rainham
- Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme
- East worthing and Shoreham
- Erith and Thamesmead
- Glasgow North East
- Glasgow South West
- Liverpool Wavertree
- Manchester Rusholme
- Mid Bedfordshire
- Mid Derbyshire
- North East Derbyshire
- Ossett and Denby Dale
- Penistone and Stocksbridge
- Plymouth Moor View
- Rawmarsh and Conisbrough
- Reading West and Mid-Berkshire
- Rhondda and Ogmore
- Sheffield Hallam
- St Helens North
- Stockton West
- Warrington North
- West Ham and Beckton
- York Outer
Which?'s study found that Nationwide had the most branches across the UK, with 606 still standing.
Campaigners including LINK have been putting pressure on banks and building societies to create voluntary banking hubs, giving customers access to some face-to-face banking services such as withdrawing and paying in cash, checking balances, paying utility bills and topping up gas and electricity.
But now there is legislation that aims to push banks to do more to protect access to cash services.
In 2023, Parliament passed the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSMA 2023) which gave the FCA responsibility to maintain cash access.
The FCA’s rules, which came into effect in September 2024, require that banks do not close services until they have carried out an assessment showing it would not impact withdrawal and deposit services in the area.
Research by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2022 found that the digitally excluded, older people, people in poor health, those with lower financial resilience and those with lower financial capability tend to depend more on cash.
Earlier FCA research found that similar groups are most likely to be affected by bank branch closures.
Many small businesses also depend on physical branches, according to a report from the Federation of Small Businesses.
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If you don’t have access to a bank, you should still be able to carry out some banking at your nearest Post Office.
Services typically include cash withdrawals, balance enquiries, cash deposits, cheque deposits, bill payments, and topping up gas and electricity.
Customers being forgotten
Customers are being forgotten, writes The Sun's Head of Consumer, Tara Evans.
With branches closing and online banking taking over, customers can be left feeling cut off.
We wrote about forgotten customers back in July on our Sun Money pages in our weekly newspaper section.
People like David Elkins, 82, a retired service engineer from Calne, Wilts, who saw his HSBC branch close in 2023 and had to travel ten miles to the next nearest.
He has a kidney issue and needs frequent dialysis, making it impractical.
Banking hubs are emerging as a solution to address the gaps left by widespread closures - but there are not enough of them.
There are plans for 146 of these, but so far there are only 60.
You can use one of the Post Office’s 11,635 branches to perform basic banking tasks, but they don’t allow you to open or close accounts for example.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
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