RBS to close 11 East Midlands branches

High street bank Royal Bank of Scotland is to close 11 branches in the East Midlands as part of a wider move that will see it shut 162 outlets with the loss of 792 jobs.

Branches in Bakewell, Burton upon Trent, Allestree (Derby), Grimsby, Lincoln, Long Eaton, Loughborough, Mansfield, Northampton, Mapperley (Nottingham) and Wollaton will close.

RBS did have plans to open a new “challenger bank” under the name Williams & Glyn, but that has been shelved and the company has reviewed its branch network.

An RBS spokesman 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 and 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.”