By Trevor Baxter
THE SCHEDULED closure of Mossley’s last remaining bank has stunned staff and angered its customers.
Citing falling counter trade but without public consultation, The Royal Bank of Scotland will shut its Old Brow facility on September 10 this year.
The decision is part of a purge on smaller branches throughout Greater Manchester as the bank prepares to re-launch and rebrand as Williams and Glyn.
The staff of three in Mossley faces an uncertain future but may be re-deployed to Ashton and Oldham.
Customers’ accounts will be transferred to Ashton’s Stamford Street branch more than four miles away.
RBS Area Director Susan Roche has defended the closure that ends over 120 years of banking on the bottom Mossley site.
Admitting the bank is a “key part of the community” she claimed: “Whenever we take the decision to close a branch it isn’t taken lightly.
“But we have to make tough, commercial decisions. Customers are choosing to do banking differently, more than 50 per cent use online facilities.
“Over the last couple of years the counter transactions at Mossley have dropped by 24 per cent. We only have approximately 70 customers that are regular week-in week-out users at that branch.
“So, we have got to take these commercial decisions even though I understand it doesn’t land well locally.”
Ms Roche was unable to confirm how many customer accounts are held at Old Brow.
“The feedback branch staff has had is disappointment the branch is closing,” she confessed. “And there is concern whether staff will be going.
“But the Bank is committed to minimizing any redundancies,” she claimed.
“The key thing over the next three months is to invest the time with regular customers to work out how we can support them to do their banking in the most convenient and practical way possible,” she said, adding provisions will be made for customers who may be challenged travelling out of area to do their banking.
NatWest and TSB have both shut branches in bottom Mossley in the last 20 years and the NatWest in Uppermill is Saddleworth’s last remaining bank.
