Virgin Money to cash in on almost a third of its branches
Virgin Money is set to permanently close 39 branches, cutting the size of its estate by almost a third.
The lender cited “changing customer demand” and said it was not handling enough transactions to justify having a large estate.
Virgin Money said that some staff would be at risk of redundancy but added it would try to relocate them to nearby branches if possible.
This follows on a number of closures within the banking and lending industry over the last few months, with HSBC opting to close 114 branches while Lloyds and NatWest previously announced their intention to shut 81 locations.
The increase in online and mobile banking has seen demand for high street lending locations plummet over the last few years.
The closures, which are expected to be completed by the end of the year, will leave Virgin Money with 91 branches.
The company said: “Each store was assessed on an individual basis, with careful consideration of the impact on the local area, as well as the needs of vulnerable customers and the accessibility of alternative services such as free-to-use ATMs and Post Offices.
“Each store closing is less than half a mile from the nearest Post Office, which customers can use to carry out day‐to-day transactions, including cash deposits and withdrawals, cheque deposits and balance enquiries, as well as coin exchange.”
However, Virgin Money has come under fire from the Unite union, which said that up to 260 jobs could be lost.
Unite national officer, Caren Evans, said: “The staff at Virgin Money UK are understandably devastated… Unite has urged the bank to rethink these catastrophic plans to withdraw banking services from communities who very much depend on the skilled and experienced banking staff.
“This decision to pull out of these locations will hurt some of the most vulnerable, disabled and digitally excluded customers.”