UK left with dwindling bank branches despite bailout

Britain has fewer bank branches per customer than almost any other leading nation, an investigation reveals.

In the past 20 years, closures have averaged one branch every day, according to the Daily Mail.

Taxpayers have each paid on average £3,180 to bail out UK banks, yet Britain now has just 203 branches per million people.

With one in six branches shutting in the past decade, more than 900 communities in the UK now have no branch, the paper reports.

The move to online banking has also been less comprehensive than many banks claim, with just 38% of Britons choosing to bank online.

As a result, millions of people have no access to best banking deals because there is no competition for their money as they do not use the internet.

Santander, which owns Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, is currently merging many of its branches into one, though it has pledged to keep the same number open. HSBC is closing 70 branches, of which half are the last in town.

Latest figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) show staff cuts are widespread.

In the five years from 2003 Abbey has reduced its staff numbers by 12,897, A&L by 2,115, and taxpayer-subsidised Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland by 15,058 and 11,200 respectively.

A study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveals fewer than one in three of those aged 55 to 64 regularly banks online. Just 12% of those aged 65 and over do. And even in the 25 to 44-year old age group only half of those regularly bank on the internet.

In some cases, rates online are more than twice those for high street customers.
The worst example sees Alliance & Leicester's online current account Premier Direct Account paying 4.67% (5.84%) while branch customers get an account paying 0.4% (0.5%).

A customer with £1,000 will lose out on up to £53 interest a year if they cannot bank online. Halifax Websaver pays 2.24% after 20% tax (2.8% before tax), but the best equivalent on the High Street is Guaranteed Saver Reward which offers just 1.2% (1.5%).