NatWest announces closure of eight branches in South Yorkshire

A bank has announced the closure of eight branches across South Yorkshire.
NatWest at HillsboroughNatWest at Hillsborough
NatWest at Hillsborough

NatWest said it has taken the 'difficult decision' to close branches in Stocksbridge, Broomhall, Firth Park, Hillsborough, Millhouses and Woodseats in Sheffield; Dinnington in Rotherham and Bawtry in Doncaster.

They will all close between May 21 and June 25.

A spokeswoman said: "The way people bank with us has changed radically over the last few years. Since 2014, the number of customers using our branches across the UK has fallen by 40 per cent.

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"During the same period mobile transactions have increased by 73 per cent; and in the first half of 2017, there were 1.1 billion mobile and online transactions carried out by our customers - an increase of 41 per cent since 2014.

The spokeswoman added: "We are communicating with our customers affected by the closure and proactively contacting vulnerable customers and regular branch users.

"We have extended the time between announcing our decision and the branch closure to six months. This has been done so that we can ensure our customers have enough time to consider the right banking options for them and to give us time to support them one-to-one during the transition.

"We know that not all of our customers are comfortable or familiar with using online or mobile banking, so we have created a new specialist taskforce of NatWest TechXperts who will be dedicated to supporting our customers with training and support with digital skills until the branch closes.

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"We have made our decision after careful consideration of a wide range of factors including changes in customer usage of the branch over a long period of time, how often customers are using the branch and the types of transactions they undertake, the number of customers who only bank via the branch and the other ways our customers can bank locally.

"We provide a range of alternative ways to bank, tailored to the needs of our customers and reflective of the way they live their lives.

NatWest has a national agreement with the Post Office to provide customers with a range of banking services, including paying money in, taking money out and checking balances. Businesses customers can also get coinage.

Nationally, a total of 197 NatWest branches and 62 Royal Bank of Scotland branches are to close, resulting in around 680 redundancies, with volunteers asked for initially.