Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland to shut 60 branches

theguardian.com:

Lloyds Banking Group has announced it will shut another 60 branches across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, in the latest example of the rapid decline of lenders on the high street.

The closures consist of 24 branches of Lloyds Bank, 19 Bank of Scotland and 17 from the Halifax brand, resulting in the group cutting more than 150 from its network since June 2021.

The move will result in 124 job losses, according to Unite, the union representing the banks’ workers. The affected branches will close by the end of the year, leaving the group with 1,416.

Lloyds Banking Group, which controls Britain’s largest high street network, cited record usage of online banking in 2022 as the reason for the closures, as almost all of the UK’s large banking groups have done when closing branches.

Lloyds said it had 18.6 million regular online banking customers and more than 15 million mobile app users across its brands – increases of 12% and 27% respectively over the past two years.

Banking analysts said the closures of less-visited branches were all but inevitable as their profitability continued to fall owing to an increasing number of transactions.

The Covid pandemic accelerated the shift to digital banking by forcing many customers to use online apps for the first time.

Yet some politicians and worker representatives worry that the banks risk abandoning customers, particularly among the elderly, who do not have the digital skills to manage their money online.

UK banks closed 4,735 branches since 2015 by December 2021 – almost half of the total – according to figures from Which? consumer group.

Caren Evans, Unite’s national officer, said: “Lloyds Banking Group must not be allowed to abandon 60 more local communities where bank branches play