HSBC is to pull back still further from Britain’s high streets after setting out plans to close another 69 branches.
The bank said yesterday that sites in Falmouth in Cornwall, Pontefract in West Yorkshire and Inverness in the Highlands were among those that would be shut between July and October. The closures will cut HSBC’s branch network to 441 branches and come after 82 locations were axed last year and 28 were shut in 2020.
About 400 staff work in the branches that will be cut this year, but a spokesman for the lender said that it hoped to redeploy all the affected employees to nearby locations.
British banks have closed thousands of branches as more of their customers move online. The rise of digital banking has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers, who were worried about contracting the virus, steered clear of branches.
HSBC said that less than half its customers used its physical sites. There are worries that those consumers who continue to rely on branches will be left behind as lenders retreat from town and city centres.
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Jackie Uhi, head of HSBC’s UK branch network, said: “We know that the majority of our customers have a preference to do much of their day-to-day banking online or via mobile, so we’re removing locations where we have another branch near by and where there is a significant reduction in customers using face-to-face branch servicing.”
Jenny Ross, of Which?, the consumer group, said: “There has been an alarming number of bank branch closures in recent years and many consumers who rely on banks to access cash for everyday essentials and face-to-face services will be concerned about what these latest closures mean for them. While many consumers now choose to bank digitally, millions of people are not yet ready or able to take that step.”
