The total numbers confirm estimates which CCBS had made previously using sampling techniques but for the first time this research provides an urban/rural/country/bank segmentation, identification of the communities concerned with bank details and subdivides the data according to mileage bands i.e. radial distance to next nearest bank branch which is a measure being used increasingly by the banks to justify their network decisions.

For branch dependent customers sole bank communities offer no competitive choice of banking provider and this disadvantage increases with the time that has to be sacrificed to travel to and from an alternative banking location on a regular basis. 70% of small businesses, for example, visit a bank at least once per week, 8% do so daily.

The closure of a sole bank, often having the major market share locally of branch dependant customers, can result in significant loss of convenience for users, and adverse impact upon the community’s retail footfall and sustainability. Yet the decision in each case rests with the executive management of one institution who may well be driven by external factors and who have no obligation to consult locally.

Although dual bank communities currently enjoy a limited choice of banking provider, research has shown that once closure programmes resume this can be short lived and in the past there has often been a race to get out first. The same research (Leyshon and Thrift Bristol University May 1997) into earlier branch closure programmes revealed a clearly identifiable ‘domino effect’ (which has continued) of one bank’s closure in a community being followed by all the others in succession over a relatively short period.

It is also relevant that the pledges given by some banks to remain open if they are the “last bank in town” apply only to such situations existing in May 2000, not situations which result from subsequent closures by a competitor(s).

Accordingly all dual bank, as well as sole bank, communities are vulnerable.

Country Differences

The most striking difference is the excess of urban over rural sites in England which is reversed in the cases of Scotland and Wales although the numbers are smaller reflecting the size and distribution of populations.

The numbers for Scotland (population 5m against England 49m and Wales 3m) are proportionately much greater and it is submitted that this is attributable to a different attitude towards branch closures by the Scottish banks which, until the recent round of takeovers and mergers, were run independently. It is understood that an unwritten understanding exists/ed between the Scottish banks not to deprive remote rural communities of banking representation altogether, despite lack of profitability, provided the burden of supporting such communities was borne more or less equally. Geography is obviously relevant.

The London headquartered Big 4 banks have historically had a harsher, more business case, approach to reducing their networks and have not been responsive to local opposition except in isolated cases. The Big 4 have closed over 4000 branches since 1-1-90, 2000 since 1995 leaving c 800 communities bankless and the informal moratorium on branch closure programmes which has existed since mid 2000 is showing signs of breaking up..

The position here is in stark contrast with continental Europe where branch density is generally 2, 3 or more times that of the UK with a more dispersed coverage as a result of the retention of regional and local banks.

Urban / Rural

Although the rural situation is significant, and it has already suffered disproportionately from previous branch closure programmes in England and Wales (only 10 of the 90 sole banks closed by Barclays on 7 April 2000 were urban) the urban numbers, especially urban villages and suburban, are greater and are expected to feature more strongly in future programmes.

The urban figures, despite using a tested method of classification, do contain some discrete communities which most people would regard as rural, for example Newlyn in Cornwall, Dibden Purlieu in the New Forest, Bearsted in Kent, which are classed as urban because of proximity to medium sized towns, large towns or conurbations.