Child & Co RBS Branch to close

[Deleted User]

Saver101101 said:

Hi, Quick Question how do you open the account online and choose the Childs branch ?, I have a RBS account and when I go to open another account it just allocates the new account to the same branch sort code ?.

@Saver101101
 You need to use the old link:

https://www.cao.rbos.com/cao/external/rbs/launchChannelHandler.do?PF=CAC&PI=ZJ&BRD=RBS&CID=INT&CS=N&devicemode=null&subbrand=responsive_rbs_personal&CCF=Y

Be quick!

[Deleted User]

I just noticed this was covered by the Daily Mail no less!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10556093/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-bemoans-ruthless-greedy-bosses-treat-bank-branches-archaic-luxuries.html

Clearly the Mail was not aware of retail customers but it appears the private customers have been told no branch as well.

On hearing of the Child & Co closure this weekend, Derek French, a former NatWest executive who has campaigned tirelessly to keep more branches open, said: ‘It’s extremely sad to see it go. It’s part of banking history. It’s a very special branch.’

Spot on. But guess what? NatWest couldn’t care less about that. Just look at the way the news has been conveyed to the bank’s 6,000 existing customers (who are required to have a sole income of at least £100,000, a £500,000 mortgage with NatWest or £100,000 of savings).

One, who described the move as ham-fisted, said NatWest had sent a ‘template letter for any old branch closure’ while ‘paying no regard to the fact that it is the oldest bank in the UK’.

The letter, shown to me by The Mail on Sunday’s intrepid banking correspondent Emma Dunkley, asked customers to use NatWest or Royal Bank of Scotland branches nearby after June 29. ‘Millions of our customers now manage their money online,’ the letter states. ‘With fewer people going into the branch, we’ve had to make some really tough choices. Which is unfortunately why we’ll be closing our London Child & Co branch.’

Yet NatWest does not deny that counter transactions for personal customers at the branch were actually increasing before the pandemic. Last night, a spokesman said the closure of the branch ‘does not mean we are discontinuing the Child & Co brand’.

That will do little to quell the disappointment among account-holders, who will have taken pride in being part of a rich history.

The bank actually dates from 1649, when goldsmith Robert Blanchard began trading on The Strand, using a marigold motif to identify his business. The mark can still be seen in the bank’s windows today.

Blanchard was joined by fellow goldsmith Sir Francis Child in about 1665 and the new firm, Blanchard & Child, moved to Fleet Street in 1673.

Designed by the eminent architect John Gibson, the building is now Grade II listed and retains the cases of muskets amassed in 1780 during the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots on London’s streets.

The third-oldest bank in the world, Child & Co – the name adopted after Blanchard’s death in 1682 – claims it was the first to introduce the pre-printed cheque. Before then, customers had to use handwritten letters.

Famous patrons reputedly included William III and Mary, 18th Century politician the Marquess of Tavistock and Charles II’s mistress Nell Gwyn.

Of course, it is hard to feel sympathetic for today’s high net worth customers as they jet around the world. I can’t imagine many will struggle to bank online.
But this isn’t really about them. It’s about the kind of country we want to live in. It’s about the slow, relentless crumbling of the community life we all cherished. It’s about our past – and our present.

Because if the magnificent Child & Co can be unceremoniously axed, it can happen anywhere, at any time. And mark my words, hundreds more bank branches up and down the country are being pencilled in for closure at this very moment. We will all be poorer for it. Shame on the banks, I say.

I do think this is a big mistake. Natwest really could have boosted the brand and taken more customers, the location, heritage and banking power are being thrown down the drain. Please reconsider NatWest! 

gsmh

A good article arguing that the closure of the Child & Co branch is more than just a branch closure. It's another part of our shared history being cancelled.

eskbanker

The Daily Mail said:
But this isn’t really about them. It’s about the kind of country we want to live in. It’s about the slow, relentless crumbling of the community life we all cherished. It’s about our past – and our present.

Daily Mail in pompous and reactionary article shocker! 🙄

planteria

any updates re what is happening with these accounts?
are 15-80-00 accounts going to continue with the same sort code and account number?
do we know definitively whether Cards and Statments will continue to be Child & Co branded? 
is 1 Fleet Street closing as a bank branch altogether? 

[Deleted User]

It’s established fact that the whole branch will close down to all customers.

Also that just because the branch is closing does not mean the brand will disappear as RBS state in the DM article.

However what is still unclear at this stage is what is happening to the retail customers and also if it will still be possible for retail customers to open an account on the Child brand beyond the end of June. It looks like we are just going to have to wait and see!

[Deleted User]

We approach the end. If anyone wants an account, now is the time. 

planteria

are 15-80-00 current accounts accessible via NatWest branches now, or just via RBS branches?

WillPS

planteria said:

are 15-80-00 current accounts accessible via NatWest branches now, or just via RBS branches?

For the RBS retail products, you can use any Natwest, RBS or Ulster Bank NI counter.

For the more specialised Child & Co offerings I have no idea, but I'd presume it's just the same.

[Deleted User]

planteria said:

are 15-80-00 current accounts accessible via NatWest branches now, or just via RBS branches?

Yes, this has been possible for some time. I made a CHAPS payment the other day via a Natwest branch. It was listed as an standard RBS account. Retail customers don't really have any extras. There are hardly any RBS branches left in London after September this year.  I think there will be two and one assumes these will close in a year or two as it was always the plan to get rid of the RBS brand in England. I think Drummonds will be the last to go after London Victoria branch. But they could keep it.

I assume for private clients they will be informed where the replacement services will be housed. As we discussed before it is assumed this will be a Drummonds.