Nearly 100 bank branches flagged for closure in just a week

Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Virgin Money have all confirmed bank branch closures will take place later this year and into early 2024.

In total in the last week alone, 97 branch closures have been earmarked by the banking giants. Here’s what’s been confirmed:

Barclays – 14 branches

In the latest round of closures, Barclays confirmed it is due to shutter 14 branches as customers continue to flock to digital channels for their banking needs.

Here are the 14 branches to close, along with the closure date:

• Chapel Street Easingwold England YO61 3AE 13/10/2023
• 24 Market Place Thirsk England YO7 1LF 25/10/2023
• 23 Yorkersgate Malton England YO17 7AE 19/10/2023
• The Twyn Caerphilly Wales CF83 1UE 13/10/2023
• 42 Wellfield Road, Roath Park Cardiff Wales CF24 3YR 20/10/2023
• 16 High Street North Dunstable England LU6 1JZ 13/10/2023
• 2 Market Square Leighton Buzzard England LU7 1EY 18/10/2023
• Unit 33, Arcades Shopping Centre Ashton-under-Lyne England OL6 7JE 13/10/2023
• Unit 2 Blue, Media City UK Salford England M50 2AD 20/10/2023
• Station Road, Hoveton Norwich England NR12 8UP 01/12/2023
• 3 St James Court, Whitefriars Norwich England NR3 1RJ 27/10/2023
• 3 Castle Street Dumfries Scotland DG1 1DJ 13/10/2023
• 28 Station Road, Cuffley Potters Bar England EN6 4HE 13/10/2023
• 51 High Street Hoddesdon England EN11 8TG 17/11/2023.

Barclays said it now has over 250 Barclays Locals open in community settings.

A Barclays spokesperson said: “As visits to branches continue to fall, we need to adapt to provide the best service for all our customers. Where there is no longer enough demand to support a branch, we maintain an in-person presence though our Barclays Local network, live in over 250 locations, based in libraries, town halls, mobile vans and our new banking pods. We also support access to cash with our cashback without purchase service, 24-hour deposit-taking ATMs and by working alongside the Post Office and Cash Access UK.”

Lloyds Banking Group – 44 branches across three brands

Across the group, 44 branches will close, which includes 24 Lloyds Bank, 15 Halifax and five Bank of Scotland locations between October 2023 and July 2024.

Once all previously announced closures are complete, Lloyds Banking Group will have 1,142 branches (553 Lloyds, 450 Halifax and 139 Bank of Scotland).

Lloyds Banking Group said it now has over 20 million customers regularly using online banking, with 17.6 million using mobile banking via app.

It said that as the use of digital banking has grown, branch visits have fallen, with the use of these 44 branches falling by an average 56 per cent – and up to 80 per cent – in the last five years.

However, all the branches set to close have a Post Office within a mile, and the majority have at least one free to use ATM nearby.

Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland will be introducing 15 new Community Bankers which provide face-to-face services including making payments, account enquiries and online banking support.

There are as follows: Lloyds Bank: Farnham, Callington, Keighley, St. Neots, Witham, Tonypandy, Crediton. Halifax: Bracknell, Maidenhead, Caerphilly, Denbigh, Ilkley. Bank of Scotland: Tarbert (Harris), Dunoon, Lochmaddy.

Further, the group confirmed staff at these locations will be offered a role at another branch or in another part of the business.

Lloyds Bank:

• 75 Castle Street Farnham England GU9 7LT 31/10/2023
• 263 Uppingham Road Leicester England LE5 4DG 02/11/2023
• 102A Brompton Road Knightsbridge England SW3 1JJ 07/11/2023
• 396-398 Halliwell Road Bolton England BL1 8AN 08/11/2023
• 57-58 Station Road Brighton England BN41 1DF 09/11/2023
• 317 Gloucester Road Horfield England BS7 8PG 09/11/2023
• 138 New Road Rubery England B45 9JA 13/11/2023
• 60 Sidcup High Street Sidcup England DA14 6EJ 13/11/2023
• 39 Piccadilly London England W1J 0AA 16/11/2023
• 129-133 Chorley Road Swinton England M27 4AE 20/11/2023
• 29-30 The Forum Lincoln England LN6 8HW 21/11/2023
• 37 High Street Avonmouth England BS11 0DX 23/11/2023
• 13 Fore Street Callington England PL17 7AF 27/11/2023
• 54 North Street Keighley England BD21 3SJ 28/11/2023
• 17-19 Market Square St Neots England PE19 2BQ 06/12/2023
• 612-614 Wolseley Road Plymouth England PL5 1TE 10/01/2024
• Union Street Ulverston England LA12 7HR 09/04/2024
• 71-73 High Street Stone England ST15 8AG 10/04/2024
• 67 Fore Street Saltash England PL12 6AJ 10/04/2024
• 34 Station Road West Drayton England UB7 7BZ 11/04/2024
• 19-20 Wellington Street Teignmouth England TQ14 8HW 15/04/2024
• 99 Newland Street Witham England CM8 1AQ 11/01/2024
• 33 Dunraven Street Tonypandy Wales CF40 1AL 04/07/2024
• 30 High Street Crediton England EX17 3AH 04/07/2024.

Halifax:

• 366/368 Chiswick High Road London England W4 5TA 01/11/2023
• 18 Broad Street Teddington England TW11 8RF 02/11/2023
• 1 Market Place Pudsey England LS28 7BE 06/11/2023
• 2/6 The Parade Swinton England M27 4BH 14/11/2023
• 360 Muswell Hill Broadway Muswell Hill England N10 1DF 15/11/2023
• 66 High Street Sidcup England DA14 6DS 22/11/2023
• 27 High Street Bracknell England RG12 1DL 28/11/2023
• 16/20 High Street Maidenhead England SL6 1QH 29/11/2023
• 32 Cwrt-Y-Castell Caerphilly Wales CF83 1NU 30/11/2023
• 58/60 High Street Denbigh Wales LL16 3LB 04/12/2023
• 7 Station Plaza Ilkley England LS29 8HF 15/01/2024
• Prescot Shopping Centre Prescot England L34 5GA 08/04/2024
• 7/7A Market Place, Thorne Doncaster England DN8 5DH 08/04/2024
• 2 Market Place Ossett England WF5 8BQ 09/04/2024
• 49/51 High Street Normanton England WF6 2AF 08/07/2024.

Bank of Scotland:

• 291 Clepington Road Dundee Scotland DD3 8BD 01/11/2023
• Main Street, Tarbert Isle Of Harris Scotland HS3 3DJ 22/02/2024
• 78 Argyll Street Dunoon Scotland PA23 7NH 05/12/2023
• Lochmaddy Isle Of North Uist Scotland HS6 5AA 26/02/2024
• 816 Govan Road Govan Scotland G51 3UP 09/01/2024.

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson, said: “Our customers are increasingly using digital channels to manage their money – we now have over 20 million customers choosing to bank online. We’re introducing more Community Bankers to provide face-to-face banking support in local communities, and our customers can also manage their everyday banking over the phone, through the Post Office or at a Banking Hub.”

Virgin Money – 39 branches

As with the other banking giants, Virgin Money said the move towards digital methods is the reason behind its closures.

The number of customers using bank branches for day-to-day transactions has been on a downward trajectory for a number of years. The stores which are closing have seen an average reduction in customer transactions of 43 per cent since March 2020 and 96 per cent of customers in these stores are transacting less than once a month on average.

It currently has 130 stores, of which 39 have been earmarked for closure. This will leave it with 91 locations following the planned store closures.

• Unit 1A, The Gosforth Centre Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne England NE3 1JZ 08/11/2023
• 151 High Street Irvine Scotland KA12 8AD 20/11/2023
• 28 Market Street Ellon Scotland AB41 9JE 27/11/2023
• 1 Main Street Turriff Scotland AB53 4AA 28/11/2023
• 76 Saddler Street Durham England DH1 3NP 06/11/2023
• 5 Cattle Market Hexham England NE46 1NJ 07/11/2023
• 7 Stricklandgate Kendal England LA9 4NB 06/12/2023
• 28 St. Peter’s Street Derby England DE1 1SL 17/10/2023
• 58 High Street Fort William Scotland PH33 6AH 22/11/2023
• 83 Victoria Street Newton Stewart Scotland DG8 6NL 15/11/2023
• 53 Lord Street Liverpool England L2 6PB 05/12/2023
• Poltalloch Street Lochgilphead Scotland PA31 8LL 21/11/2023
• 34 The Town Enfield, London England EN2 6LU 21/11/2023
• 36 Market Square Bromley, London England BR1 1NF 30/11/2023
• 307 Station Road Harrow, London England HA1 2TA 23/11/2023
• 30-31 Haymarket London England SW1Y 4EX 29/11/2023
• 2 Golders Green Road Golders Green, London England NW11 8LH 22/11/2023
• 160 Friar Street Reading England RG1 1HE 15/11/2023
• 15-17 Castle Street Kingston upon Thames, London England KT1 1ST 28/11/2023
• 12 North Street Guildford England GU1 4AF 14/11/2023
• 154-158 Kensington High Street Kensington, London England W8 7RL 27/11/2023
• 26-27 Sidney Street Cambridge England CB2 3HW 25/10/2023
• 10 Castle Street Norwich England NR2 1PD 26/10/2023
• 170 North Street Brighton England BN1 1EA 09/11/2023
• 18-19 Trinity Street Cardiff Wales CF10 1BH 02/11/2023
• Unit 16, Norfolk House, Wellesley Road Croydon, London England CR0 1LH 13/11/2023
• 83 High Street Chelmsford England CM1 1DX 20/11/2023
• 67 Queen Street Wolverhampton England WV1 3BY 18/10/2023
• 6-8 Watergate Street Chester England CH1 2LA 19/10/2023
• 215 High Street Cheltenham England GL50 3HH 30/10/2023
• 5 Lockey House St Albans England AL1 3LP 24/10/2023
• 10 Regent Circus Swindon England SN1 1PW 31/10/2023
• 502 Silbury Boulevard Milton Keynes England MK9 2AD 23/10/2023
• 5 Wellington Place Belfast Northern Ireland BT1 6GA 13/11/2023
• 112 Old Christchurch Road Bournemouth England BH1 1LU 07/11/2023
• 10 College Place Southampton England SO15 2FD 08/11/2023
• 60 South Street Exeter England EX1 1EE 06/11/2023
• 129-129A High Street Oxford England OX1 4DF 16/11/2023
• Unit 2, Transom House, Victoria Street Bristol England BS1 6AH 01/11/2023.

Virgin Money said each store was assessed on an individual basis, with “careful consideration of the impact on the local area”, as well as the needs of vulnerable customers and the accessibility of alternative services such as free-to-use ATMs and Post Offices.

Each store closing is less than half a mile from the nearest Post Office, which customers can use to carry out day‐to-day transactions, including cash deposits and withdrawals, cheque deposits and balance enquiries, as well as coin exchange.

Further, for those considered vulnerable, Virgin Money’s “dedicated customer care colleagues” will contact them to ensure appropriate support is provided to meet their banking needs following the closure and help with any issues they may have.

A range of support services will be available prior to store closures, including digital workshops to help customers become more comfortable with digital banking, as well as Post Office pop-up sessions to increase customers’ knowledge on the services available to them. Staff will also contact vulnerable customers post-closure to ensure that the support they have received is appropriate and address any concerns they have.

Sarah Wilkinson, chief operating officer at Virgin Money, said: “The decision to close a store is never taken lightly. But as our customers continue to change the way they want to bank with us, by conducting fewer transactions in-store and adopting the convenience of digital banking, we must respond to that evolving demand.

“Our focus is on supporting our customers and colleagues. We have considered the number of vulnerable customers using each store very carefully throughout the review process as a key factor in our decision making, and will proactively provide enhanced, bespoke care to ensure any vulnerable customers affected are supported through the changes.”

The bank added that for staff, it will “pursue all options to retain as many as possible within alternative roles”.