RBS Hereford branch to close

Royal Bank of Scotland have confirmed the Hereford branch will close later this year.

The Broad Street branch will close on Wednesday 8th August.

RBS customers will be able to bank in person at Natwest instead.

The bank, which has previously blamed falling branch business and growing numbers of digital banking customers for shutting sites in recent years, said the move this time largely reflected its decision not to sell its Williams & Glyn business.

It said that by not creating the challenger bank, as it had once been required to do by regulators, it was removing geographical duplication in its branch network.

It meant that the bank, still majority owned by the taxpayer after its 2008 bailout, has announced a total of 569 branch closures since March 2017.

The plans will leave the group with just 105 RBS sites in England and Wales as it looks to build its Natwest brand, which would have 650 high street outlets.

RBS revealed that 109 branches would close this summer in the latest round of cuts - all of them currently within 0.6 miles of another RBS or NatWest branch, it said.

It said the balance of 53 would go in November and many of those would mean longer journeys of up to 2.5 miles for customers who want alternative branch services.

A spokesperson explained: "We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other - NatWest and RBS - in England & Wales.

"As a result we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we've made the difficult decision to close a number of RBS branches.

"Customers of RBS in England & Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs.

"We now provide our customers with more ways to bank with us than ever before - customers can choose from a range of digital, face-to-face and local options to suit their needs."