At 31-12-2007 10,131 retail bank branches remain of which 2060 are converted building societies (following absorption of Woolwich into Barclays during 2007) not offering the full range of banking services to all market sectors; in the main these ‘new banks’ merely extend choice in big town centres.  The Big 4 banks (Big 3 in Scotland) operate the only bank branches in 95% of rural and suburban communities where only one or two banks remain.

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During the 10 years of CCBS’s campaigning a  slowdown in the rate of closures by the traditional high street banks has been experienced.  However, following the abandonment of formal pledges given in 2000 not to close last banks in rural communities, LTSB, HSBC (which has recently downgraded 30% of its network to ‘service point’ status) and Barclays have continued to close neighbourhood branches; the 2007 growth  at Barclays, against the trend,  is attributable to the re-branding to Barclays of 94 Woolwich urban outlets, following closure of the latter’s network.

The Campaign’s view is that further significant closures in suburban and rural communities will happen between now and 2010 to offset income losses from penalty charges and payment protection insurance and to fund new sales focussed outlets in high footfall sites.  The intervening time could be used constructively to experiment with all types of shared branching in order to sustain a branch presence in deserving communities, and elsewhere to significantly reduce costs; regrettably the industry continues to resist this.