In his gloomy assessment of the future of bank branches, Patrick Collinson holds up as a benchmark for determining the number of branches a bank needs the criteria outlined by Nationwide director Graeme Hughes, which involves concentrating on areas of highest population density, meaning that “towns with a population much below 10,000 … are not really worth having a branch in” (Why 3,000 bank branches must close, On reflection, Money, 17 September). Surprisingly, Collinson fails to mention the banks that are opening branches. For instance, Sweden’s Handelsbanken has more than doubled its presence in the UK in four years and marked the opening of its 200th branch in the UK a year ago. In 2001, it had only six branches in Britain. Its philosophy, unlike that of Graeme Hughes, is to intensify decentralisation in order to get closer to its customers and develop a customer base in each branch’s community. To facilitate this, each branch is run autonomously.
David Head
Navenby, Lincolnshire
• Patrick Collinson observes that he has not visited his local bank this year, and that some branches see just a handful of people a day. Could the reason be that UK’s banks no longer offer the local expertise that used to pull people in? There was a time when managing a branch meant keeping tabs on local small businesses and using their experience to grant (or decline) requests for overdrafts and loans. But for today’s giant banks it is much easier to have HQ assess a £10m loan to a developer in Dubai than it is to maintain an informed local network capable of making 100 loans of £100,000 in the UK. Society grants our banks the huge privilege of creating demand deposits, ie money, by issuing overdrafts and loans. Those running the UK’s centralised, profit-maximising banks don’t appear to recognise the obligation for a quid pro quo.
David Chambers
Stroud, Gloucestershire
• For some years it has been clear that a £5 coin would be more convenient to use while making purchases than a £5 note (From today, everyone can pay with plastic, 13 September); it would also last much longer than an item that can be folded and crumpled. The design and production of new of polymer notes would seem to be unnecessary and a waste of money and resources.
Ted Relton
Kesgrave, Suffolk
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
