At 31-12-2008 only 10,080 retail bank branches remain of which 2057 are converted building societies 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: many Halifax/LTSB and Santander duplications are expected to close. The Big 4 banks (Big 3 in Scotland) operate the only bank branches in 97% of rural and suburban communities where only one bank remains.

During the 11 years of CCBS’s campaigning a dramatic slowdown in the rate of closures by the traditional high street banks has been experienced and closures have temporarily ceased during the banking crisis when survival of the bank itself became the priority. This situation is not expected to last.

The Campaign’s view is that further significant closures in suburban and rural communities will resume as profits come under pressure from the cost of increased capital, low deposit margins and income losses from penalty charges and payment protection insurance: the emphasis will be to invest in 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 operating costs, but to date the industry and government have consistently failed to recognise the opportunities.