Santander has announced it will close its bank in Arnold – as part of plans to shut 111 branches by the end of August.
The banking giant said the move had been triggered by the ongoing shift by customers towards mobile and online banking.
The branch on Front Street will close on August 12.
Santander said the trend has been accelerated by the pandemic, although branch transactions fell by a third over the two years before the virus crisis and declined by a further 50% in 2020, said the banking giant.
Mobile and online transactions have been growing by 20% each year, with almost two thirds of transactions now digital.
A dedicated phone number is available to provide customers with help and information on the closures (0800 085 0879).
Adam Bishop at Santander, said: “Branch usage by customers has fallen considerably over recent years so we have made the difficult decision to consolidate our presence in areas where we have multiple branches relatively close together. The majority of the closing branches are within three miles of another branch and the furthest is five miles away.
“We will provide every support to customers of closing branches to find alternative ways to bank with us that best suit their individual needs. We are also working alongside our unions to support colleagues through these changes and to find alternative roles for those impacted wherever possible. We continue to believe that branches have an important role to play and we expect the size of our network to remain stable for the foreseeable future.
“We are committed to supporting our customers and responding to changes in the way customers want to access services.”
Every time I have gone into santander in arnold they have tried to persuade me not to go in and to use online banking instead. It was a strategy to reduce people going in and apparently it’s been successful since they say less people going in. I have changed banks before, just need to do it again!