Bank branch closures are destroying our communities

We are fast approaching a time when massive tracts of this fine country of ours (greenfield, brownfield, urban, rural) will be bank-free zones.

Villages and towns stripped of their last bank. Goodbye pub, goodbye convenience store and now goodbye bank. Yes, ultimately goodbye community.

Last week’s disappointing report from the Competition and Markets Authority on how to breathe fire into the static current account market will do little to arrest this decline in the bank branch. Its authors seem besotted with the digital age, prattling on about a future dominated by digital banking and open competition. It’s as if the bank branch was already a thing of the past.

Over the years, I’ve given over hectares of editorial space to the devastating impact on communities when the last bank in town is no more. I’ve travelled the length and breadth of the country to speak to those affected. Has it made a blind bit of difference? Sadly, no.

Despite managing to irritate the swathe of bank officials responsible for wielding the axes, the big banks have not been for turning.