British retail bank NatWest shut down its branch in Highbridge, citing sharp decline in customers who use the branch for banking transactions.
The closure of the branch ends 137-year history of banking at the site.
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A spokeswoman for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which owns NatWest, was quoted by Burnham-On-Sea.com as saying, "The number of customers using this branch has dropped by nearly a fifth over the last few years."
"The branch has only been open for 14.5 hours a week recently and there were only 30 customers who regularly used the branch each week."
Natwest said the customers who have basic bank accounts with the Highbridge branch will have their restrictions lifted and will be able to use ATMs from other banks in the area. There are four NatWest ATMs within a three mile distance of the branch.
This is yet another instance of major banks closing branches due to customers switching to alternate channels of banking. Recently, HSBC closed a branch in London for the same reason.
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By GlobalDataNatWest spokeswoman added that a decline of 30% has been observed in branch transactions since 2010 as people switch to more convenient banking channels such as telephone, post offices and online.
"We have an arrangement with the local Post Office, which is near the branch that allows our customers to withdraw cash, check balances and pay bills free of charge."
