NatWest shuts down branch it pledged to keep open forever

Again: Elderly persons who do not use smartphones or computers are the victims of such branch closures. But unfortunately they have no lobby.

agree that it is an issue , but speak to AGE UK if you think there is not an effective lobby group.The ex Chair of the Payments Council who tried to withdraw cheques ,will beg to differ with you regarding their  effectiveness.

As I have always said, the UK bank that maintains a strong High Street presence with properly trained staff to meet their customers face to face when the customer wants to meet NOT at the behest of the bank on a sales pitch will clean up on the UK financial services market. Day to day transactions may be done over the internet/phone but customers still want to talk to proper bank managers. As the previous commentator says the elderly dont use the internet regardless of what the Barclays Eagles state.

Whilst i agree with Ulrich Rosenbaum on the victims of branch closures, i would point to the power of the "grey lobby", notably Age UK who were in the forefront of lobbying against the planning to close the cheque clearing which proved so embarrassing for the UK Payments Council. In that case the enforceed reversal of plans hinged on the inability to produce evidence to government that the disadvantaged groups who could/would not move to new methods would be catered for when the cheque clearing closed.   

The loss of buisness through branches should therefore be a trigger for deeper thinking tahn just cost saving: sharing branches or outsourcing to organisations (e.g. the Post Office mentioned above) who are committed to providing a wider range of face to face services - or indeed taking on this wider role themselves. An ideal soliution woudl leve other wise disadvantaged grousp with a potentially BETTER solution, whilst finding new ways to capitalise on the channel, (e.g. could you apply for  passport at a bank - leverging their KYC investment?) In the wake of the inevitability of digital self-service becoming the primary channel for retail banking this will require some serious out of the box, and potentially collaboratiive thinking. Avoiding doing this could end up being an expensive ommission.  

I think the Finextra member in the 24 June 11:19 post is describing Metro Bank's philosophy.  It will be interesting to see if they do clean up.