Santander to close five North East branches and cut hours of more
Santander is set to close five North East banks amid sweeping changes across its network.
The Spanish-owned banking giant has announced it will be shutting 95 branches across the country from June while cutting hours across 36 sites and switching 18 to counter-free.
The move will put around 750 jobs at risk, which is more than 4% of its 18,000 UK workforce if plans get the go-ahead after consultation with unions.
Among the 95 closures are five banks in the region:
Blyth
Redcar
Stokesley
Whitley Bay
Gateshead, at the Metrocentre
Several other North East banks will also see hours reduced from June 30.
The Washington branch, at The Galleries, will soon change to opening times on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 9.30am and 3pm.
The Durham branch will soon only be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9:30am and 3pm and on Saturdays between 09:30am and 12:30pm.
The bank is also changing 18 sites to being counter-free branches from June 16, but stressed they will also be manned by staff to offer face-to-face support, with an average of eight workers in these branches.
This includes the Hartlepool branch.
The group will be recruiting 95 new community bankers in the locations where it is shutting branches and hopes to redeploy some of the affected workers into these jobs.
It said that 18 new banking hubs will need to be launched to serve local areas across the UK following its branch changes.
The news today means the high street lender will later this year reduce its total number of branches from 444 to 349.
It comes in response to customers increasingly switching to online banking, with a 63% surge in digital transactions since 2019 while branch transactions have slumped by 61% in that time, according to the firm.
The news also comes just several years after the firm shut 111 branches in 2021, which was around a fifth of its network at the time.
A Santander spokesperson said: 'As customer behaviour changes, we are ensuring that our branches remain fit for the future.
"Our new combination of full-service branches, alongside work cafes, counter-free branches, and reduced hours branches, aims to provide the right balance between digital banking and face-to-face money management and guidance.'
He added: 'Closing a branch is always a very difficult decision and we spend a great deal of time assessing where and when we do this and how to minimise the impact it may have on our customers.'
To support the changes, Santander said it will be 'proactively contacting all potentially vulnerable customers by phone and will assist those customers of closing branches to find other ways to bank that best suit their needs'
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Jenny Ross, money editor at consumer group Which?, warned Santander's branch closures will 'come as a real blow to many customers'.
She said: 'Schemes introduced by the banking industry to protect these services, such as banking hubs, are a good start in plugging gaps left by closing physical branches, but they must be rolled out much more quickly if consumers are to feel their benefits.
'The government must hold banks' feet to the fire to ensure the commitments they've made to set up 350 hubs by 2029 are met – and should be prepared to review the target upwards if necessary.'
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