Santander to close one fifth of UK branches amid online switch

2 weeks ago 13
The continued displacement  towards online banking volition  spot    Santander unopen  a 5th  of its UK branchesThe continued displacement towards online banking volition spot Santander unopen a 5th of its UK branches. Photo: Paul ELLIS / AFP
Source: AFP

Spanish slope Santander announced Wednesday plans to adjacent 1 5th of its UK branches, impacting 750 jobs, arsenic the power to online banking gathers pace.

The radical said it would adjacent 95 branches, leaving it with 349, immoderate of which would run astatine reduced hours and without antagonistic services.

Of the 750 positions affected, lone astir 100 volition beryllium redeployed to different roles astatine the company, a root adjacent to the substance told AFP.

The overhaul comes besides arsenic the bank's UK operations person struggled nether beardown home competition.

"As lawsuit behaviour changes, we are ensuring that our branches stay acceptable for the future," a spokesperson for Santander UK said successful a statement.

The slope said it had seen "a accelerated question of customers choosing to bash their banking digitally, with a 63-percent summation successful integer transactions since 2019".

It added that in-branch transactions had dropped 61 percent successful the aforesaid period.

As portion of the restructuring, Santander plans to lend to the enlargement of section banking hubs and to usage "community bankers" who volition supply face-to-face support.

The hubs are tiny facilities serving banks that supply services specified arsenic depositing currency and cheques successful summation to face-to-face conversations with a assemblage banker.

They are seen arsenic helping successful peculiar the elderly, radical with disabilities and tiny businesses -- particularly successful agrarian areas.

The caller operation astatine Santander UK "aims to supply the close equilibrium betwixt integer banking and face-to-face money absorption and guidance", the group's spokesperson added.

Santander, which has a beardown beingness successful Latin America and Europe, posted a grounds nett for 2024, but its aboriginal successful the UK has been called into question.

The slope has considered exiting the British retail market, including a imaginable merchantability to UK rival NatWest, according to the Financial Times.

However, Santander's enforcement president Ana Botin has maintained that its UK operations are not for sale.

The UK market, successful which the radical has operated for much than 2 decades, represents astir 9 percent of its revenue.

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Source: AFP

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