RBS to close half its Edinburgh branches

Paul_1977

ROYAL Bank of Scotland is to close half its Edinburgh branches in the latest round of cost-cutting - with more misery to come.

The bank - still over 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer following the 2008 bail-out - announced nine branches in the Capital will close in May and June next year. They are at Blenheim Place, Castle Street, Chesser, Comiston, Davidson Mains, Gilmerton, Juniper Green, Portobello and Edinburgh University.

It means the number of RBS branches in the Capital will be cut from 17 to just eight.

The Unite union voiced “bitter disappointment” at the closures which it said would affect 116 staff and could mean 45 job losses.

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/rbs-to-close-half-its-edinburgh-branches-1-4306476

Think this is pretty much the shape of things to come. In the end we will end up with "mega branches", maybe only one or two in each city, which will deal with many many customers at once.

chambta

The end is nigh.

veryintrigued

I was more astounded it had 17 branches in a city the size of Edinburgh!

SnowTiger

veryintrigued wrote: »

I was more astounded it had 17 branches in a city the size of Edinburgh!

Google suggests there are more than half a dozen RBS branches within a square mile in the centre of the city.

antrobus

veryintrigued wrote: »

I was more astounded it had 17 branches in a city the size of Edinburgh!

It is rather a lot. Edinburgh has a population of about 500,000, so that's one branch for every 29,000 people.

The IMF (they have stats on this sort of thing) says that the UK has on average, one bank branch for every 25,000 people. Given that RBS is not the only bank around, it would imply that RBS has too many branches in Edinburgh. Given that we had to bail the darned thing out, and it's still losing money, closing a few would seem to be a good thing.

Thrugelmir

Paul_1977 wrote: »

Think this is pretty much the shape of things to come. In the end we will end up with "mega branches", maybe only one or two in each city, which will deal with many many customers at once.

How often do you yourself use a bank branch?

Paul_1977

Thrugelmir wrote: »

How often do you yourself use a bank branch?

Couple of times a month, for pay-ins.

colsten

you can pay cash and cheques into your RBS account at Post Offices.

agrinnall

veryintrigued wrote: »

I was more astounded it had 17 branches in a city the size of Edinburgh!

There used to be more, just off the top of my head I can think of at least 4 branches that no longer exist, and they've all been closed for at least 10 years, the chances are that more will have already closed between 2008 and now.

[Deleted User]

Yeah loads of RBS branches here in Edinburgh have closed over the last few years. Surely closing even more is counterproductive?


I switched off to another bank sometime ago as despite working in the city centre all my 'local' branches have gone. Branches were handy for paying in cash etc


Cheers

knack92

It's interesting that they're now closing branches which have received refurbishment recently eg. Juniper Green and Comiston. I expected them to be safe for the foreseeable future.

veryintrigued wrote: »

I was more astounded it had 17 branches in a city the size of Edinburgh!

There was at least 28 not too long ago.

Other branches which have closed in the last five years:

Colinton
Fairmilehead
Goldenacre
Heriot Watt University
Tollcross
Craigentinny
Marchmont
Shandon Crescent
Gyle
North Bridge
Minto Street
Royal Infirmary