HSBC to close 12 Welsh bank branches from April in move to mobile banking
Banking giant HSBC said it will close 12 bank branches in Wales from next April in the face of declining footfall.
The bank – which is closing 114 bank branches across the UK – said it is investing tens of millions of pounds in updating and improving its remaining branch network, which will total 327 after the new wave of closures.
The decline in customers using branches has accelerated so much since the Covid pandemic that some of those closing are serving fewer than 250 people a week, HSBC said.
On the other hand, usage of its mobile app has almost tripled since 2017, with the vast majority of transactions completed digitally.
Jackie Uhi, HSBC UK’s managing director of UK distribution, said: “People are changing the way they bank and footfall in many branches is at an all-time low, with no signs of it returning. Banking remotely is becoming the norm for the vast majority of us.
“The decision to close a branch is never easy or taken lightly, especially if we are the last branch in an area, so we’ve invested heavily in our ‘post-closure’ strategy, including providing free tablet devices to selected branch customers who do not already have a device to bank digitally, alongside one-to-one coaching to help them migrate to digital banking.”
Closures
Welsh sites due for closure and when they will shut.
- Abergavenny – April 18
- Brecon – May 9
- Chepstow – June 6
- Penarth – June 13
- Pontypool – June 27
- Port Talbot – July 11
- Blackwood – July 25
- Denbigh – August 8
- Colwyn Bay – August 15
- Cardiff Rhyd y Penau – August 29
- Tenby – date TBC
- Cowbridge – date TBC
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Mae eu gwasanaeth Cymraeg wedi mynd yn warthus yn ddiweddar hefyd. Pan agora Arianfa Cambria, rwyf yn symud fy holl geiniogau prin i’r fan yma.
Ffarwél i fanc lleol y byd!
I live in the Rhondda. Our branches have moved further and further away from us. We now have to travel to Cowbridge for a branch which I see is set to close. I will now have to leave HSBC as I am unable to reach a branch at all. Is it any wonder less people use them when we cannot reach them.
The sooner Banc Cambria gets a Wales wide launch the better!
Been banking on line for years but from time to time it’s useful to go into a branch for a personal meeting. Others have a totally different profile and need access to branches for almost all their services. Some time ago it was mooted that every town that had been served by the banks would have a shared service centre where people could deal with their needs. It looks like the banks have kicked that into the long grass along with any other thing that might add to their cost burden and eat into the senior execs’ 6 or 7… Read more »
your comment that you find it useful to go into the branch from time to time but you do most online illustrates exactly why they are closing the branches. They are not community hubs but businesses and i cannot blame them.
Well my local branch in Abergavenny is one of those for the chop, I’ll close my accounts and switch to Lloyds as a result. Fully agree with hdavies, sometimes it’s just convenient to pop into the branch, you build a relationship with the staff over the years, it just adds to the customer service experience in my opinion. It’s a pretty high net worth part of Wales and they’ll lose a lot of business to their competitors by shutting shop, not at all sure in this instance it makes good business sense…Some other smaller branches maybe, not this one.
So the service hub needs to be adopted to provided face to face help.
Time fir the banks ti wirk together and have 1 office for all banking customers in most towns or alliw the Post Office to fulfil the roll of a bank.