Sixty RBS branches to close in North West with hundreds of jobs axed
The North West has borne the brunt of the decision by the Royal Bank of Scotland to close 162 of its branches with the loss of 800 jobs.
Just over 60 branches are to close in the region with around 30 in the Greater Manchester area alone.
A total of ten RBS branches are to close in Manchester with three in the city centre shutting their doors including the high-profile branch in Spinningfields.
Three branches are to close in Liverpool and Lancashire has also been badly hit by the wave of closures.
RBS has blamed the decision on a deal with the EU last year which meant the bank did not have to sell off 300 branches.
The EU had demanded the sale, to increase competition, as a condition of the RBS taxpayer bailout in 2009.
The Williams & Glyn brand was revived in a bid to save the branches but no buyer was found.
A statement from RBS 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 and Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs.”
The bank added that the 792 staff working at the 162 branches will be made redundant.
According to RBS the number of transactions being carried out at its branches has fallen by almost a third with people preferring online banking.
It has been claimed that just a handful of people visited the branch in Spinningfields each week.
The Unite union has urged RBS to halt its “disastrous plans”.
Unite national officer, Rob MacGregor, said: “The TSB computer systems crash last week has demonstrated without question that the banking system needs its branch network more than it ever has.
“Unite is calling on the Royal Bank of Scotland management not to abandon their responsibilities to the communities across the country who depend on Williams & Glyn banking facilities.”
Full details of all the closures can be found here.
