Following a review of their branch network in England and Wales the Royal Bank of Scotland has taken the decision to close 162 Royal Bank of Scotland branches which will result in around 792 roles being made redundant.
109 branches will close in late July and August 2018 then a further 53 branches will close in November 2018, including the Handforth branch which will close on November 12th.
An RBS spokesperson said "We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other; NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, in England & Wales. As a result we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we've made the difficult decision to close a number of Royal Bank of Scotland branches. Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England & Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs.
"Furthermore, the way customers bank with us has changed radically over the last few years. Since 2012 we have seen the way in which people use Handforth branch change, with 83% of customers already banking in other ways locally. Transactions at Handforth have reduced by 61% since 2012 with only 35 customers now visiting the branch on a regular weekly basis.
"We expect these branch closures to result in around 792 roles being made redundant. We realise this is difficult news for our colleagues and we are doing everything we can to support those affected. We will ensure compulsory redundancies are kept to an absolute minimum."
The Alderley Edge branch will also close on 29th November 2018 whilst the Wilmslow branch will remain open.
Comments
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There are large branches of both banks in Wilmslow and they will both stay open.
RBS's announcement today says that they will close branches that operate in close proximity to Nat West branches and that customers can access banking services at Nat West.
It seems a great pity for pensioners and other groups that haven't embraced online banking, preferring to conduct their financial business in person.
When the Williams & Glynn framework of RBS reared its ugly head some of us were invited to a Manchester meeting to express our viets and give feedback. One item we asked for was not to interfere or rearrange the local branches with their excellent staff in 2015, and certainly do not take away the local phone access. Since then the excellent staff left and RBS bullied us into using their Wavertree, Liverpool call centre along with most of their branches. Services like opening business accounts cannot be done in the branches.
I went into RBS Deansgate to give feedback to their staff operating their Private Banking and Business Banking teams. It was explained to me that RBS (and NatWest presumably) were jealous of the success of First Direct banking and wished to follow suit. It was hard for them to accept that had its customers wanted a First Direct model, they would have joined First Direct years ago. Their widely promoted mobile app. has been hacked and a customer's funds taken at least once. When they pull the plug from their W. 533604 telephone number I shall leave the bank despite having shares.
What should be of concern to us all is the likelihood that the closed branches (owned by RBS or NatWest) will provide substantial profits to the company. Since the country bailed out RBS we need to be sure that the senior management are not going to award themselves a productivity bonus. Their promise of service has been forgotten.
Raymond J Walker