Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays have unveiled plans to open joint branches for small businesses across UK after branch closures generated a lot of backlash.
The business banking hubs will not carry brands of any of the three banks. It will offer basic banking services to small firms, reported Reuters.
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UK joint branches initiative
Initially, the banks are planning to pilot six business banking hubs across the country.
These centres will operate for extended hours and will enable the businesses to carry out cash exchange transactions.
It will also allow the customers to pay in large quantities of coins, notes and checks compared to normal branch transactions.
RBS, Lloyds and Barclays will share the ownership of these joint branches enabling the customers to utilise shared facilities.
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By GlobalDataThese centres will be operated by cash management vendors G4S and Vaultex.
In the recent years, almost all the British banking majors have started trimming their brick-and-mortar presence. The closing is primarily attributed to the rise in digital banking and fall in branch banking.
In November last year, RBI reported that over 1,800 branches have closed – one in five of all outlets – since January 2017.
In 2018, UK bank branch closures totalled 682 led by RBS NatWest, which has closed 409 branches. Barclays and Lloyds branch networks also dropped last year.
