More than 1,000 jobs at risk as Santander announces branch closures

Six Santander branches across the West Midlands are included in the 140 that the Spanish-owned bank has announced will close, putting a total of 1,270 jobs at risk.

Santander is slashing its branch network by almost a fifth, blaming the closures on “changes in how customers are choosing to carry out their banking”.

It said branch transactions have fallen 23% in the last three years, while digital transactions have grown by 99%.

The branches in the West Midlands that will close, and when, are:

• Birmingham Acocks Green on 2 May 2019
• Four Oaks, Lichfield Road on 9 May 2019
• Kingswinford on 6 June 2019
• Birmingham New Street on 25 July 2019
• Coventry High Street on 7 November 2019
• Shrewsbury High Street on 5 December 2019

Santander has consulted trade unions on the closures and says it will seek to find alternative roles for the workers affected.

It said its future branch network will be made up of a combination of larger branches offering improved community facilities to support local businesses and customers, and smaller branches using the latest technology to offer customers more convenient access to banking services.

Santander will retain a nationwide network of 614 branches following the proposed changes, 100 of which will be refurbished over the next two years through an investment of £55m.

Susan Allen, head of retail and business banking, said: “The way our customers are choosing to bank with us has changed dramatically in recent years, with more and more customers using online and mobile channels. As a result, we have had to take some very difficult decisions over our less visited branches, and those where we have other branches in close proximity.

“We will support customers of closing branches to find alternative ways to bank with us that best suit their individual needs. We are also working alongside our unions to support colleagues through these changes and to find alternative roles for those impacted wherever possible.”

“We continue to believe that branches have a vital role to play and we will be refurbishing 100 of our branches over the next two years. We are confident that following these changes we will have the right branch network to serve our customers’ changing needs, and we expect the size of our network to remain stable for the foreseeable future.”