Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of bank branch closures on (a) affected communities, (b) local businesses and (c) customers.

The Government believes that banks should act in the best interests of their customers and continue to serve the needs of the consumer as well as the wider economy. This is why the Government welcomed the industry-wide Access to Banking protocol announced in March 2015. The protocol commits each participating bank to carry out a number of steps when it is closing a branch, including the preparation of meaningful local impact assessments. After deciding to close a branch a bank must also engage with key local stakeholders to understand the potential impact of the close on the local community and branch users. The results of the engagement and the impact assessment will be published before the branch is closed.

Professor Russel Griggs is leading an independent ‘one year on’ review of the protocol. The Government looks forward to seeing the conclusions of the review.

However, banks and building societies need to balance customer interests, market competition, and other commercial factors when considering their strategy. Decisions on the opening and closing of individual branches are taken by the management of each bank on a commercial basis without intervention from Government.