Britain’s most deprived communities bear the brunt of Clydesdale Bank’s ruthless programme of bank closures. National Australia Bank, the owners of Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks today named the remaining 46 locations in their 100 branch closure programme for 2005.

The announcement confirmed the worst fears of the Campaign for Community Banking Services (CCBS), which believes that the closures will have a catastrophic impact on the 27 rural Scottish communities where Clydesdale was the last remaining bank.

The Campaign for Community Banking highlights the blatant hypocrisy of the Clydesdale Bank which still proclaims its commitment to “socially inclusive” banking, and boasts that it provides “friendly service through a comprehensive network of 230 branches”. But while local residents might have hoped that having raked in £90 million in profit last year Clydesdale would honour its claims of “continuing to invest in our branches”, today’s announcement tells a very different story.

Derek French, Hon Director of CCBS says:

“The claims for socially inclusive banking are, quite frankly, misleading when you look at the facts. Closures are targeted at small communities and poor areas such as the Yorkshire Bank branch in Bradford which is in one of the poorest 10% of communities in England. National Australia also considers other struggling communities worthless, such as areas of Glasgow, Sheffield and Leeds. This draconian action by Britain’s last regional banking group demonstrates that poor or remote areas can be totally excluded, while the Government pays lip service to tackling inequality but does nothing to prevent the gap between rich and poor widening”.

The Campaign for Community Banking believes that the government should demonstrate its commitment to poor and rural areas by working with the banks to find a financially and socially responsible answer for all sides. The campaign believes that we should follow the shared branch approach that has been adopted elsewhere in the world.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. HSBC has announced 52 branch closures in 2005 also targeting rural areas and deprived city communities..
2. CCBS is a coalition of 28 national organisations concerned about bank branch closures. Details on website www.communitybanking.org.uk.
3. CCBS’s latest proposals for shared branching: The White Label Branch are available on the website under Reports and were rejected by the industry: see press release 9 May 2005.

Contact

Derek French, Hon Director T 01582 764760.