Virgin Money, which announced plans in September to shut 31 outlets for good. Lloyds Banking Group was also planning to close 48 branches, according to an announcement made in October. The latter is now planning to shut more branches across the country, fuelling the rapid decline of lenders on the high street.
Lloyds Banking Group, controlling Britain’s largest high street network, announced last week that another 60 of its branches will be shut in the UK, which would consist of 24 Lloyds Bank branches, 19 of Bank of Scotland and 17 from the Halifax brand. This would mean that the group has cut over 150 branches from its network since June last year. A record usage of online banking in 2022 has been cited as the reason for the closures, which would result in 124 job losses Unite, the trade union representing the banks’ workers said.
According to Lloyds, its regular online banking customers amounted to 18.6 million, a 12 per cent increase over the past two years, while mobile app users across its brands jumped by 27 per cent during this period to 15 million. Banking analysts are of the view that with declining profitability in less-visited branches, their closures are inevitable. However, some commentators, politicians and worker representatives in particular, claim that customers are being abandoned as a result, especially the elderly, who do have the digital skills to rely on online banking.
“Lloyds Banking Group must not be allowed to abandon 60 more local communities where bank branches play an essential role,” Caren Evans, a national officer with the Unite union, said. “The banking sector needs to answer some serious questions about its corporate social responsibilities and the government cannot stand back and allow the relentless closure of banks to continue until no more local banking services remain.”
