Greater Manchester bearing the brunt of RBS branch closures

Federation of Small Businesses

Greater Manchester is bearing the brunt of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branch closures, with around 30 in the area on the list.

Robert Downes, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Development Manager for Greater Manchester and North Cheshire, said: “This fresh round of closures will hurt high streets all over the North West, but particularly in Greater Manchester, at a time when thousands of small firms are already struggling.

"When a bank branch goes it means less footfall, less cash in the local economy and less revenue for local small firms as a result.

“If firms can’t easily deposit takings it makes them targets for theft. Many small business owners have built up relationships with branch personnel that go back years – that’s not something that can be replaced by an app.”

“This is really disappointing, and to see even flagship branches in Manchester City Centre being put to the sword in this latest cull shows the bank’s not thinking about customers, just its own bottom line. In the space of barely a week we’ve had the TSB IT fiasco, and now this. Yet again the banks are making headlines for all the wrong reasons.”