Bailed out bank RBS has earmarked 154 branches for closure this year – at least 5% of its branch network.
While customers have been told that their branches are going to be closed, the 81% taxpayer-owned bank has not made a formal announcement about the dramatic branch reduction programme.
RBS, which also has branches as NatWest and Ulster Bank, reneged on its promise to keep the “last branch in town” open earlier this year and on Friday it refused to made any fresh commitment to its 2,000-strong branch network.
Ross McEwan, the bank’s chief executive, conceded that 102 branches had already been shut. He has pledged to improve customer service and simplify the product range, ending teaser rates used by many rivals to win new customers.
He insisted that the bank did not have a formal branch reduction programme and would not indicate how many outlets would be closed next year against a backdrop of a 30% reduction in the number of branch transactions as customers increasingly adopt internet technology.
Earlier this week Lloyds Banking Group caused controversy by announcing 200 branch closures – alongside 9,000 job cuts – over the coming three years. At the time the 24%-taxpayer owned bank had insisted it was closing branches at a slower pace than rivals.
The move by Lloyds to close 6% of its branches over three years sparked intervention by the business secretary, Vince Cable, who called on the banking industry to make more use of post offices.
RBS made a pledge in 2011 not to shut branches where it was the last in town but in April it emerged that it had closed 44 branches, including 14 where it was the last branch in town.
