Is HBOS planning significant branch closures?
It has been revealed in the weekend press, although as yet unconfirmed, that HBOS (now part of the Lloyds bank group) is looking to close around 300 Halifax branches. As we covered in one of our recent post, slowly but surely HBOS has been reducing its exposure on the UK high street with a fairly slow and fairly low-key closure of some branches. However, the revelation that up to 300 branches may possibly be for the chop will send shivers the spines of many local businesses around the UK.
It is no secret that local communities around the UK have been hit very hard by the UK recession and many of them depend upon their local banking facilities to fund their customers who will eventually acquire goods and services from them. If local banking facilities are taken away then more customers will need to travel further afield to obtain their funds with the distinct possibility they may eventually shop elsewhere.
While we await confirmation of the branch closures this does bring into question the "social responsibilities" of the UK banking sector and whether Lord Turner was in fact correct to call them "socially useless" in some circumstances.
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