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Customers are suffering “shameless and shameful” treatment from banks as they close branches and replace them with inadequate “hubs” and other facilities, it was claimed yesterday.
Furious MPs have attacked bank bosses over the strategy which forces customers to use the pop-up sites in unusual locations, including a garden center and even public toilets.
This follows the closure of almost 6,000 branches since the start of 2015, including 645 last year, and more than 200 have been closed this year.
Lenders say this is because people are increasingly using online banking, but critics say older and more vulnerable customers are being left behind.
The bosses of four major lenders – Charlie Nunn of Lloyds, Paul Thwaite of NatWest, Vim Maru of Barclays UK and Mike Regnier of Santander UK – squirmed when confronted by angry MPs on the Treasury select committee.
Closures: Furious MPs have attacked bank bosses over the strategy which forces customers to use pop-up sites in unusual locations.
“Most of your customers are confused and have no idea when these cuts will stop, they don’t understand how decisions are made,” said Conservative MP Anne Marie Morris.
She called the banking center policy “fundamentally flawed”, adding: “The kind of places that are created, because you can’t find sites that suit you, we have one center in a public toilet.
“I hope you’re not proud of it.” When will the bloodshed stop?
Conservative Therese Coffey pointed the finger at Barclays, saying her constituents had complained that replacement banks’ “touch points” were “not particularly private when you’re going to discuss things – they’re in a garden center , they are waiting outside in the rain.”
She said the bank had not listened to the comments.
Coffey told Maru: “I think you are brazen and shameful in your approach to your customers.
The majority of your profits in the UK now come from retail banking and this really indicates that you don’t care.
She said she was concerned about the impact of the closures on those who have been victims of fraud and need help.
“I’m really, really worried about some people in society who are completely defrauded and have nowhere to turn.”
Harriett Baldwin, chair of the committee, said the comments demonstrated the strength of feeling among MPs.
“I’m sending a message to all of you to go back and make sure that access to cash and this whole process of hubs is working effectively because from our point of view, it’s not,” she said. declared.
Maru said that at Barclays, branch usage had fallen by 65 per cent while app usage had increased by 120 per cent. “We have responded to behavioral changes in consumer demand and expectations. »