Bank branches were once a staple of every high street and a necessity for most financial transactions. However, as people are increasingly moving to online and mobile banking, banks branches have been disappearing from high-streets of the UK at a rapid pace.
We’ve done some research to find out how people in the UK are now interacting with their banks beyond the COVID pandemic. We also analysed the regions where bank branches are closing and which bank brands are shutting them.
We looked at how high-street bank customers are changing their interaction with their bank branch beyond COVID-19.
According to our research, 1.4 million Brits (3%) don’t intend to go back to a bank branch again after the COVID-19 pandemic. A further 1.7 million (3%) said that they don’t have an account with a high-street bank, meaning a total of 3 million Brits don’t have a need for physical branches. And this number may rise, as 8.4 million Brits (16%) had stopped using their bank’s branches before lockdown and are not sure if they will ever return.
However, not everyone has gone completely digital, with 3 in 10 high-street bank customers (29%) already returning to using their bank’s branches, with an additional 44% of customers planning to return soon. Of those people who plan to return in the near future, over two thirds (69%) will only return if they absolutely need to and their problem cannot be solved online or over the phone, while a third (31%) are waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment before they go back to their local branch. This means that eventually, three-quarters of Brits (74%) will return to in-branch banking in some form.
| Intentions | Number of high-street bank customers |
|---|---|
| Will use bank branches post COVID-19 | 22,534,172 |
| Have already returned to using bank branches | 14,961,878 |
| Stopped using bank branches before COVID-19 | 8,358,960 |
| Don't have a bank branch | 1,650,705 |
| Won't use bank branches post COVID-19 | 1,390,622 |
We also analysed how high-street bank customers from different regions across the UK are changing their interactions with their bank branches. Find out which regions are giving up on bank branches and going digital with our interactive maps below.
| Region | Stopped using bank branches before COVID-19 | Will never return to bank branches | Will or have returned to bank branches |
|---|---|---|---|
| East England | 22% | 1.7% | 71% |
| East Midlands | 25% | 1.5% | 66% |
| London | 14% | 3.2% | 77% |
| North East | 15% | 5.0% | 74% |
| North West | 14% | 1.8% | 76% |
| Northern Ireland | 8% | 1.7% | 85% |
| Scotland | 19% | 3.2% | 69% |
| South East | 17% | 2.6% | 74% |
| South West | 15% | 2.3% | 75% |
| Wales | 18% | 3.1% | 72% |
| West Midlands | 15% | 5.3% | 72% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 12% | 1.9% | 79% |
According to our survey, a quarter of customers (25%) in the East Midlands had already stopped banking in branches, making this the area with the most customers who no longer use branches. A close second was East England, with 22% having stopped using bank branches, followed by Scotland (19%), Wales (18%) and the South East (17%).
In contrast, Northern Ireland was the least likely to give up bank branches pre-COVID-19, with only 8% having stopped using them.
West Midlands residents were most likely to never go back to bank branches, with 5.3% choosing this option. The next-highest region to give up on bank branches was the North East (5%), followed by London, Scotland and Wales, with 3.2%, 3.2% and 3.1% of residents respectively saying they are never going back to bank branches.
The region that’s most keen to return to bank branches is Northern Ireland, with 85% of residents saying that they have already returned or are looking to return soon. Yorkshire and the Huber residents are the next most enthusiastic (79%), followed by London (77%), the North West (76%) and the South West (75%).
The region least interested to go back to bank branches were those in the East Midlands, with just 66% of residents saying they will return to them.
Brits may have to make a longer journey than they previously did to find a branch. Research shows that 25% of bank branches have closed in the UK since 2012 and this decline in branches is likely to continue if people follow through with their plans to avoid them. There are now 8,525 bank branches in the UK, down 2,830 from the 11,355 in 2012.
| Year | Number of bank branches |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 11,355 |
| 2013 | 11,335 |
| 2014 | 10,960 |
| 2015 | 10,745 |
| 2016 | 10,340 |
| 2017 | 9,690 |
| 2018 | 9,090 |
| 2019 | 8,525 |
Looking at branch closures from 2019 all the way to those scheduled for the end of 2021, TSB will have 260 bank branch closures, the most of any bank. Next is Barclays with 151 closures, followed by Santander (142), Lloyds (79) and RBS (54).
| Bank Brand | Number of closures |
|---|---|
| TSB | 260 |
| Barclays | 151 |
| Santander | 142 |
| Lloyds | 79 |
| RBS | 54 |
| HSBC | 34 |
| Halifax | 23 |
| Co-op | 18 |
| Nationwide | 17 |
| Bank of Scotland | 8 |
| Virgin | 6 |
| Yorkshire | 6 |
| Clysedale | 5 |
| Coventry | 2 |
Those in Northern Ireland will have the least amount of bank closures between 2019 and 2021, with 78 branches closing. The North East has the second-least amount of bank closures (114), followed by the East Midlands (231), Wales (245) and East England (274).
The region with the most bank branch closures is Scotland (491), followed by the South East (483) and the North West (473).
| Region | Number of closures |
|---|---|
| East Anglia | 274 |
| East Midlands | 231 |
| London | 382 |
| North East | 114 |
| North West | 473 |
| Northern Ireland | 78 |
| Scotland | 491 |
| South East | 483 |
| South West | 416 |
| Wales | 245 |
| West Midlands | 284 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 299 |
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