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Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
Sophie Law

Santander to shut bank branches in Scotland this month - full list of closures

Santander will close more branches in the UK this month - with four of those being in Scotland.

The Spanish lender said all outlets will close by the end of August 2021 - but insisted the majority of those affected are less than three miles from another Santander branch.

Some 75 branches across the UK in total will be affected, as the banking giant pushes through a closure programme that was first announced in March.

Santander cited changes in customer behaviour since the start of the Covid-19 crisis for its decision to close branches - but will retain a network of 452 branches.

It added that all current and business account holders will be able to bank at one of 11,000 Post Office branches instead.

The closure programme started on June 24, with one in Glasgow and four in London among those that shuttered on the first day.

Santander is also consolidating office sites into six main locations, with Milton Keynes set to become its new corporate head office.

It will be joined by hubs in Belfast, Bradford, Glasgow, London and Sheffield, with offices in Bootle, Newcastle, London Portman House and Manchester Deansgate offices to shut by Christmas.

Around 5,000 staff based at closing or consolidating sites will be offered flexible working, combining working from home with access to local office hubs.

A statement said staff will contact potentially vulnerable customers by phone to provide individual support in the next five months.

A dedicated phone number is available to provide customers with help and information on the closures at 0800 085 0879.

Santander echoed its rivals as it warned the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way people use bank branches.

It said branch transactions fell by 33% in the two years before the pandemic and declined by a further 50% in 2020.

Adam Bishop, at Santander, said: "Branch usage by customers has fallen considerably over recent years so we have made the difficult decision to consolidate our presence in areas where we have multiple branches relatively close together."

It comes as Marks & Spencer is shutting four bank branches in Scotland and terminating its entire current account offering this summer.

According to Which?, 3,836 branches of various banks have closed in the UK since January 2015, at a rate of around 55 each month.

This includes 20 major lenders, with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank shutting 1,086 outlets alone.

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