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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Emma Munbodh

Owner of TSB bank says it's 'considering options' amid plans to close 164 branches

The owner of TSB has said it's considering options for the bank after it called off a planned merger with rival BBVA earlier this month.

Spanish lender Sabadell - which bought the UK bank after it split from Lloyds in 2013 - was in talks to merge with BBVA bank a fortnight ago, however it failed to agree on a price.

Sabadell said it would now seek "strategic alternatives for creating value with regard to the group's international assets, including TSB".

TSB said it had "good momentum" in its business growth after signing a deal with American IT firm IBM to run its online banking, after a series of high profile technical glitches.

It came after the bank lost £330million in April 2018, after an IT failure left 1.9million people without access to money.

Customers had been moved on to a new internal system, but an investigation found it had not been tested properly before going live.

The bank was hit my a major banking glitch in April 2018 (PA)

TSB was owned by the Lloyds Banking Group until it went independent in 2013 when Lloyds received a government bailout after the financial crisis.

Sabadell bought the bank two years later for £1.7billion.

In September this year, TSB said it would close 164 of its branches and cut 960 jobs, blaming "a significant shift in customer behaviour" due to a rise in online banking.

The lender said 848 employees expected to enter consultation on the back of the decsion.

Debbie Crosbie, chief executive of TSB, said: "Closing any of our branches is never an easy decision, but our customers are banking differently – with a marked shift to digital banking.

"We are reshaping our business to transform the customer experience and set us up for the future. This means having the right balance between branches on the high street and our digital platforms, enabling us to offer the very best experience for our personal and business customers across the UK.

In the past 10 years, TSB has cut its network from 631 branches to just 454. The latest announcement will see the total number drop to 290.

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