Nationwide Building Society has made a new pledge to keep each of its 696 Nationwide and Virgin Money branches combined open until at least 2030.
The new commitment, which extends the society’s existing “branch promise” by at least another two years, applies even when a Nationwide branch and a Virgin Money branch are close to each other. Nationwide bought Virgin Money last year.
The pledge has been made despite many bank branches being closed, with services such as banking hubs (where spaces are shared by multiple banks) and Post Office branches helping to plug the gaps.
Nationwide said that while many vulnerable and older customers rely on the face-to-face support from a branch, many younger people also use branches. It said more than one in 10 of its new student accounts were opened in branches in the new academic year.
Dame Debbie Crosbie, group chief executive at Nationwide, said: “Branches are important to our customers, to communities and to the health of our high streets.
“That’s why Nationwide will continue to keep branches open in addition to our investment in online and telephone channels.”
Nationwide said it operates the UK’s biggest single-brand banking network, with 605 branches. When combined with Virgin Money’s 91 branches, the total network expands to 696 branches.
The society said it has seen a particular increase in account openings in locations where it is the “last branch in town”.
It said that, since January, another 33 Nationwide branches have became the last in town when other banks have closed their branches.
The society said a third (33%) of Nationwide current accounts and about a fifth (22%) of savings accounts were opened in branch in the six months to the end of September, with volumes up compared with a year earlier.
Nationwide’s branch promise was first introduced in 2019 and was extended last year, when Nationwide included the Virgin Money branches it gained when it acquired the bank in October 2024.
The society also uses branches to host dementia clinics via Dementia UK’s specialist admiral nurses, to hold digital lessons to boost people’s tech confidence and to provide “safe spaces” to support victim-survivors of domestic abuse.
