All the bank branch closures including Lloyds and NatWest in August – is your local affected?
In fact, so far in 2025, 423 branches have closed already from January through July.
1
A further 127 are expected to close between September and December as banks cut costs and push customers toward online services.
According to consumer champion Which?, banks and building societies have closed 6,443 branches since January 2015, at a rate of around 53 closures each month.
This represents 64% of the branches that were open at the start of 2015.
The figures cover branches from 20 major current account providers, showing how widespread the cuts are.
NatWest Group, including NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, has closed the most, with 1,477 branches shut since 2015.
Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, shut 1,391 in the same period.
Barclays alone has reduced its network by 1,236 branches, the most for any individual bank.
Branch closures peaked in 2017, when 867 sites closed across the UK, more than 70 each month, followed closely by 792 closures in 2018.
How Link is helping with cash access
Thanks to pressure from campaigners, including Link, some banks have agreed to open voluntary banking hubs that offer face-to-face banking services for customers in areas affected by branch closures.
These hubs let you:
Pay and withdraw cash
Check your balance
Pay utility bills
Top up gas and electricity
Link recommends hubs in areas with at least 10,000 people and 70 shops, also considering local demographics, digital skills and transport links.
A full list of operating banking hubs is available on the Cash Access UK website.
If you think your area is under-served you can request a hub.
First, you need ask Link for a 'cash access review' to check if services in your area are good enough.
Who can ask?
Anyone can make a cash access request, individuals, groups or organisations.
You just need to make your request in writing, and help is available if you need it.
You can complete the request form online or print it and post it to:
LINK Scheme Ltd (Cash Access Request)
Central House, Otley Road, Harrogate, HG3 1UF.
When might a review not happen?
If there's already an ongoing or recent review covering your area and the same cash services
If there isn't a good reason to review the cash access services where you live
If you are made aware of existing services nearby and decide there's no problem
If you cancel your request in writing or by email
Before asking for a review, check if there's a bank branch, Post Office or ATM near you.
Post Offices offer Everyday Banking services including cash deposits, withdrawals and balance checks for many banks and building societies.
Using the Cash Locator tool can help you find the nearest place to get or pay in cash.
Link wants to make sure everyone can easily access and manage their money, so don't hesitate to ask for help if you think cash access in your area isn't good enough.
Which banks are closing?
Here are all the closures planned for August 2025:
Bank of Scotland – one closure
North Berwick: August 20
Barclays - one closure
Hull: August 22
Lloyds Bank – one closure
Leeds Crossgates: August 20
Santander – 14 closures
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Finextra
3 minutes ago
- Finextra
Mastercard unveils A2A Protect in the UK
Mastercard is rolling out A2A Protect in the UK, a new service designed to help banks protect consumers from account-to-account payment fraud and resolve disputes. 2 Mastercard A2A Protect will initially focus on the most acute needs, such as Authorised Push Payment fraud, providing a combination of preventative measures, consumer protections and a process to recover funds. Subsequent phases will establish a process for recovering funds across a broader range of scenarios, including where goods and services have been paid for. In the UK last year £592 million was lost to Account-to-Account fraud. The Payment Systems Regulator has also taken steps to address the concern, introducing a 50:50 liability model for APP fraud. Mastercard says A2A Protect will deliver an industry-wide standardised fraud and loss reporting mechanism alongside a simple framework and set of multilateral standards addressing transactional and fraud protection issues, as well as goods and services protection issues, where relevant for consumers. The product also features a uniform procedure for banks to resolve disputes and recover funds, across multiple use cases via Mastercard's existing centralised platform. 'With Fast A2A comes fast fraud, and we owe it to consumers to have their back. Mastercard A2A Protect delivers meaningful benefits to every participant in a transaction.' says Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard. 'It lowers operational costs for financial institutions through standardised real-time fraud insights and streamlined dispute resolution, and all participants benefit from quicker and more predictable outcomes.'
Finextra
3 minutes ago
- Finextra
Embat appoints leadership team for UK and Ireland
Embat, a leading European financial management and treasury platform, is accelerating its expansion across Europe with the appointment of a new leadership team for the UK and Ireland. 0 Building on its strong European presence, Embat has a growing footprint in the UK, is trusted by over 300 corporate clients and manages more than $200 billion in annual transactions. Its customer base includes Dojo, Arena Racing, PetLab Co, Cabify, Wallapop, and Fever | DICE. Embat also partners closely with EY, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle NetSuite. Theo Wasserberg, Head of UK and Ireland, will lead Embat's market strategy, customer partnerships and team growth. A seasoned executive with a background in enterprise software, Theo brings more than five years of experience at SAP, where he worked closely with ERP customers on banking and reconciliation solutions. Following the completion of an MBA at INSEAD, he went on to lead strategy for a top SAP partner, helping CFOs navigate digital transformation across Europe. 'If it still takes your team three days to find your cash position, something is broken within your finance function,' said Theo Wasserberg. 'Embat delivers the automation and real-time visibility that corporate finance teams need to stop fighting fires and start driving value. I'm excited to lead this expansion and bring a smarter approach for finance teams in the UK.' He is joined by Quique Fernandez, Country Launcher & Head of Treasury Transformation, who brings deep treasury domain expertise and will lead product localisation, solution design, and client delivery for the region. Quique previously held senior treasury and payments leadership roles at high-growth firms including Northern Data Group and Teya, where he focused on building scalable treasury functions across cash visibility, FX, automation, and intercompany finance. 'Finance teams have been promised digital transformation for years, but many are still stuck with legacy systems, repetitive tasks and manual work,' said Quique Fernandez. 'At Embat, we're combining cutting-edge infrastructure with real-world treasury expertise to give mid-market companies the tools they need to scale. I'm excited to build the foundations of our UK platform with our partners and clients.' Founded in 2021, Embat successfully closed a Series A funding round last year. Its cloud-native platform empowers finance teams at mid-sized and large enterprises to manage all aspects of treasury and accounting in real-time. This includes automated bank reconciliation, live cash monitoring and forecasting and strong anti-fraud tools. It was one of the first companies to partner with Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform. Its in-house AI analyst, TellMe, acts like a real-time team member - flagging anomalies, predicting cash flow patterns, and offering data-backed recommendations - while keeping humans in control where it matters most. 'Finance teams deserve more than visibility - they need clarity, control, and confidence,' said Antonio Berga, co-CEO and founder of Embat. 'The UK is a priority market for us, and our expansion here reflects the urgent need for tools that are purpose-built for modern finance leaders. We're proud to deliver a platform that turns finance into a strategic advantage.'
The Independent
3 minutes ago
- The Independent
Homemade scones in peril at National Trust cafes as job cuts loom
Visitors to some National Trust cafes could be forced to go without homemade scones as proposed job cuts are poised to hit kitchen staff. The beloved British bakes could be shipped in from a central source rather than being freshly baked in cafe kitchens in less profitable venues, leaving customers fearing for the traditional treat's quality, according to reports in The Times. It comes as the Trust is set to axe around six per cent of its staff – approximately 550 jobs – in a bid to reduce costs and find £26m in savings. In a statement, the charity blamed the recent employer's National Insurance increase and National Living Wage rise, which they said had added more than £10m to their annual wage bill. A spokesperson for the charity said the changes, if adopted, would affect just ten per cent of its cafes. 'The proposed changes would affect less than 10 per cent of our cafés, all of which are smaller outlets where rising costs are making it increasingly difficult to be financially sustainable,' they told The Independent. 'We would still have food and drink available at these cafés, however, and in more than 90 per cent of our cafés there would be no change to what we offer.' The charity, which cares for over 500 historic houses, gardens, castles, and natural spaces in the UK, previously said that it was struggling with rising costs, despite growing visitor numbers. 'To meet our aims and create a sustainable future for the organisation in a tough financial environment, our first step must be to ensure we are financially strong and properly resourced for the future,' they said. 'Although demand and support for our work are growing with yearly increases in visitors and donations; increasing costs are outstripping this growth.' The charity said that the proposed changes will enable it to 'keep on caring for and championing our shared historic and natural environment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, long into the future'.
