Just three months into 2024, there have already been 245 bank closures that have been confirmed for England in the year ahead, which includes one located in Leicester. The city is scheduled to go through it’s Barclays at Belgrave Road, Belgrave, Leicester.
The closing date is set to take place in July of this year. Below is an interactive map that illustrates how wide the bank closings across the country is expected to be in 2024.
In addition to those that have been confirmed to shut this year, another of 89 across the country have been scheduled for closure in 2025. Six more are also scheduled to close but don’t have a dates for closure as of yet.
Twelve banks across the country were closed in the month of January and 38 closed in February. Out of the 245 imminent closings scheduled for 2024, the closure of branches of 89 will leave nearby communities without any alternatives to branches of any bank.
Based on recent trends, it’s likely that more announcements of closures could be forthcoming. Since February 2022, when an agreement of voluntary nature saw the major banks agree to reviewing the effects of each closure – 1,325 banks have closed or announced plans to or have announced their intention to close.
It’s an average of about 55 closings each month, or nearly two closures every day. The closing of Barclays’ Leicester branch will be the 21st bank closing in Leicestershire from February 2022.
The LINK initiative to study the effect of closures that was approved by the major banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, Lloyds, and Halifax The initiative was established to ensure that customers who were vulnerable and small-scale businesses weren’t affected by the switch to cashless transactions or virtual bank.
If closures have left communities without local banks or banking hub, banks hubs or ATMs are established to fill in the gaps. About a quarter of closings in 2022 left the community in its midst with no bank branch close by.
The charitable organisation Age UK has called for branch closings to be put on hold until further banking hubs are opened in areas without alternative options. Caroline Abrahams, charity director for Age UK, said: “The constant flurry of bank branch closures will mean that at the end of the year, there will be significantly less opportunities for face-to-face banking than there were only a few years ago.
“Older residents of semi-rural and rural areas will likely to be most affected, however people living in cities and towns aren’t protected. Our study revealed that over four million people over the age of 40 with an account with a bank in Britain do not manage their funds online and are most at risk of being excluded from digital services.
