VANISHING BANKS

An average of 10 banks have closed per week since the launch of an initiative to protect access to cash on the high street

- By RICHARD AULT

MORE than 1,700 UK banks have closed or are due to shut in three years since the launch of an initiative designed to protect access to cash on the high street.

Thirty-five banks were expected to close in January alone, and at least 289 will close this year. Nineteen branches are already scheduled to close in 2026, and another 19 are earmarked for closure, but no end date has been set.

It follows on from the 399 banks that closed last year, 633 in 2023, and 103 in 2022.

In total 1,784 bank branches have shut or announced their intention to close since February 2022, when a voluntary agreement saw the major banking groups commit to assessing the impact of every closure.

That's an average of around 50 closures per month or 11 per week.

The LINK initiative to assess the impact of closures - which was agreed by all the major banks including Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, Lloyds, and Halifax - was set up to ensure vulnerable customers and small businesses were not left behind in the switch to cashless payments and virtual banking.