Dozens of banks across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ are set to close in June as part of a wave of summer closures.
Some 69 banks have either already closed or will have shuttered by the end of May, leaving some communities with little or no banking services. One closure this month was the Lloyds branch in Farnworth, the last bank left in Bolton’s second biggest town. Residents of that 29,000-strong community will now have to travel for in-person banking services.
Still more closures are due in June - a total of 85 banks. That includes 25 branches of NatWest, 24 Santander branches, 15 Lloyds branches, 13 Halifax branches, seven Bank of Scotland branches, and one TSB.
By the end of next month, 240 banks will have closed in 2025, and dozens more set to close later in the summer.
You can find out if any branches are due to close near you this summer, using our interactive map.
In February 2022, a voluntary agreement saw the major banking groups commit to assessing the impact of every closure. But since then, 1,879 bank branches have shut or announced their intention to clos – an average of around 50 closures announced per month or 12 per week.
The LINK initiative was agreed by all the major banks including Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, Lloyds, and Halifax and aims to ensure vulnerable customers and small businesses were not left behind in the switch to cashless payments and virtual banking.
When closures leave communities without any local bank, banking hubs or free ATMs are set up to fill the gap.
A new report from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that 9.7 million people, or about 18% of adults, visit their bank branch at least once a month, although that has slumped from 40% in 2017.Around 3.3m people (7% of current account holders) had not done any online banking in the last year.
The FCA survey, for the year to May 2024, also found that 21% of current account holders had experienced the closure of a bank branch they used regularly.
Nick Quin, head of financial inclusion at LINK, said: “Digital still doesn't work for everyone and we know that people from more deprived areas are more reliant on cash. That's why it's our job to make sure that every high street continues to have free access to cash for as long as it is needed.â€
Cat Farrow, customer and strategy director for Cash Access º£½ÇÊÓƵ, said: “Banking is changing as more people and businesses choose to pay digitally, but it’s vital we continue to support people who rely on cash and face-to-face banking. Shared banking hubs are a great solution as they can serve nearly all banking customers with basic cash services and on a rotating basis, customers can speak to a community banker about more complex banking issues. We recently reached our latest milestone with the opening of our 150th banking hub in Kirkham, Lancashire and are excited to continue rolling them out in communities where needed.â€
