Business leaders attack closure of county bank branch
By Bev Hawes | 2nd May 2018
Business leaders have today condemned the decision to close the Royal Bank of Scotland branch in Gloucester as part of major cuts.
RBS is to shut 162 RBS branches in England and Wales. The Federation of Small Businesses says businesses will suffer - especially in rural areas.
Nationally some 792 RBS staff will be offered voluntary redundancy. The Gloucester RBS branch in Westgate Street is to shut on August 1.
An RBS spokesperson said: "We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other; NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, in England & Wales.
"As a result, we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we've made the difficult decision to close a number of Royal Bank of Scotland branches. Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England & Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs.
"Furthermore, the way customers bank with us has changed radically over the last few years. Since 2014, branch transactions across Royal Bank of Scotland in England & Wales are down 30 per cent.
"During this same period, there has been a 53 per cent increase in the number of customers using mobile banking and mobile transactions have increased by 74 per cent."
Sam Holliday, the Federation of Small Businesses' development manager for Gloucestershire and the West of England (pictured right), said: "The latest spate of bank closures is indeed very worrying because small businesses continually tell us that they rely on, need and value the services and relationships they have with their local banks.
"Yes, the vast majority of our members, like everyone else, do use online banking but many regard that as one solution to their banking needs and not the only one - especially in rural areas where poor broadband connection makes access a challenge.
"We are due to have a meeting with local bankers shortly and when we asked members for their comments on their attitudes to their banks the lack of personal access via branches kept coming up time and time again.
"What's critical is that small business owners that rely on bank branches are provided with suitable alternatives well before closures happen.
"Losing branches is also particularly worrying at the moment as we are in a time when plans are also afoot that may diminish the amount of cash machines available in the future. That just adds to the problem."
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