Barclays and Lloyds amongst financial institution branches asserting closures

Two of the nation’s greatest banking giants have introduced they’re closing a complete of 63 branches.

Barclays stated on Friday it’ll shut one other 10 branches, on prime of more than 70 closures this year that have already been announced.

Meanwhile Lloyds Banking Group will shut the doorways on 21 Lloyds Bank websites, together with 15 Halifax excessive road branches and 17 Bank of Scotland buildings between September and May 2024.

The firm beforehand introduced in January that it planned to close 40 Lloyds and Halifax sites.

The closures will happen throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The fast shrinking within the variety of bodily banks throughout the UK comes as increasingly clients select to virtually solely use on-line banking.

However considerations have been raised that shutting swathes of excessive road branches might trigger issues for older and weak individuals who shouldn’t have easy accessibility to the web.

Age UK warned in a report final month that the rise of digital banking, cashless transactions and the closure of branches carried the chance of some individuals being “cut adrift from society”.

A ballot of over 65s, commissioned by the charity, discovered that 27% handle their accounts by way of a department or different bodily location, similar to a Post Office, quite than on-line.

Some 75% stated they wished to hold out no less than one transaction in a department.

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Lloyds stated that throughout its manufacturers greater than 20 million clients frequently use on-line banking, and that visits to the 53 branches it’s shutting have dropped by a median of 55% within the final 5 years.

The worst hit department earmarked for closure has seen footfall drop by 73%, Lloyds stated. It didn’t reveal the situation.

A spokesperson stated: “Alongside our digital and mobile banking options, we’re introducing more community bankers to provide face to face banking support in communities.

“Customers may also financial institution with us over the cellphone, by the Post Office or in a banking hub.”

The company said all staff at branches which are set to shut would be “supplied a job at one other department or elsewhere in our enterprise.”