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HSBC is to close a quarter of its UK branches, as it comes under pressure from its biggest investor to cut costs and scale back its network.
The lender said on Wednesday it would close 114 branches nationwide from April next year, reducing the number of its UK outlets to 327.
The closure, which the bank attributed to a change in customer preference for online banking, echoes similar cost-cutting moves by rivals such as Lloyds.
HSBC said that more than 97 percent of transactions, personal loan applications and credit card applications are now done digitally.
“Over the past five years, use of the bank’s branch network by regular customers has fallen by 65 percent,” HSBC said in a statement. “The decline in branch usage following the Covid-19 pandemic has been so rapid that some branches are closing which are now serving fewer than 250 customers a week.”
Jackie Uhi, managing director of distribution at HSBC UK, said: “People are changing the way they bank and footfall in many branches is at an all-time low, with no signs of going back. Remote banking is becoming the norm for most of us.
The decision comes a day after the bank agreed to sell its Canadian business to Royal Bank of Canada for $10bn. HSBC has come under constant pressure from its largest shareholder, Chinese insurer Ping An, to improve its operations and cut its persistently high costs.
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