ROYAL Bank of Scotland has been accused of a “historic betrayal” of Scottish communities after its chief executive vowed to press on with closing down more than 50 branches in the face of mounting public anger.
Ross McEwan, who runs the publicly owned bank, made clear to the Commons Scottish Affairs Committee there was no alternative but to axe 52 branches – 10 have a temporary reprieve until the year end.
The RBS chief blamed “changing trends” in people’s banking habits but vowed to wait until 2020 before shutting down the branches.
Last December, when the Edinburgh-based bank made its controversial decision to close 62 branches north of the Border, it stressed how there had been a fall in branch use of about 40 per cent in the last three years.
The bank also recently announced it would close 162 branches in England and Wales, resulting in 792 job losses.
Speaking yesterday at Westminster, Mr McEwan told MPs: “We’ve not taken any of these closure decisions lightly. Let’s be clear, when we look at our customer behaviour the evidence is stark: branch use has fallen dramatically; the great majority of our customers want to bank when it suits them and at all hours. They aren’t using a branch as their first point of call now at all.”
Noting how the 10 branches which have been temporarily reprieved will know their fate by the end of the year following a review, the bank chief added: “I am comfortable with the size of our branch network in Scotland and it is right alongside all of our other services.
“I want to be clear: our branches do remain a core part of our service and we will not look at the size of the network again in Scotland until at least 2020 to give customers, colleagues and the communities greater certainty.”
Mr McEwan also denied claims by the Unite union that there would be 179 compulsory job cuts as a result of the branch closures, saying the number would be no more than 12.
But MPs were angry by RBS’s approach.
John Lamont, the Conservative MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, who sits on the committee, branded the evidence of Mr McEwan and his RBS colleagues “pathetic”. He said it “showed a complete lack of understanding about the impact losing a bank will have on rural communities”.
And he added: “They seem to think that most people are happy to lose their branch and appeared completely unaware that its customers across rural Scotland were angry at losing their mobile van or the problems disabled customers have in accessing mobile branches”.
Labour’s Ged Killen, who also sits on the committee, was equally unimpressed, saying: “The answers given by Mr McEwan to the committee were vague when we wanted specifics and focused on specifics when we asked for the bigger picture.”
SNP MP Deidre Brock, another committee member, said: “This is a bank that now looks purely interested in maximising profits and losing its community responsibilities.”
Christine Jardine for the Liberal Democrats said the bank had agreed to discuss its idea of pooling banking resources in banking hubs across Scotland but she also noted: “RBS has benefited from the support of the taxpayer. They therefore have a duty to take a community focused approach that ensures people have access to face-to-face financial services.”
Lyn Turner of Unite said the bank had “abandoned all social responsibility” and “stands accused of a historic betrayal.”
She added: “The bank trebled its profits to more than three quarters of a billion pounds in the first three months of this year but is still furiously resisting any block on closing 52 branches.
“The chief executive tried to defend the indefensible. His version of the facts is totally different from ours.”
Last year, RBS, which was bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of £45 billion following the 2008 financial crash, was criticised after making people in the UK redundant while outsourcing work to India.
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