Virgin Money UK has informed staff that a third of its branches will close before the end of the year.
The challenger bank, which includes Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank chains, its workforce that it will shtter 39 of what it calls 'stores', resulting in 260 job losses.
"After a review of how customers are using our stores, we’ve made the difficult decision to close some of our stores from October 2023," the FTSE 250-listed group said on its website.
It said rising digital service usage prompted the "tough decision" to close the branches and that it needed to "balance investment in digital services with making sure our Store network continues to meet the needs of our customers".
Last year VMUK made a profit of £595 million and announced £267 million of shareholder dividends and buybacks.
The Unite trade union criticised the move in light of the "eye watering profits" of the industry and called on banks to "start taking their responsibilities to customers and communities more seriously".
Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham said: “Today 260 skilled and experienced staff have learnt that they risk losing their livelihoods at a time of deep economic uncertainty for all workers.
“While the financial services sector is acquiring eye watering profits, they must start taking their responsibilities to customers and communities more seriously. Access to a bank and cash is a fundamental need for all our local high streets. Simply walking away from the consumers who bring the banks astronomical profits is a complete disgrace.”
Unite noted that since 2015 over 6,000 bank branches have closed their doors.
Virgin Money's planned branch closures today:
- Belfast
- Bournemouth
- Brighton
- Bristol
- Bromley
- Cambridge
- Cardiff
- Chelmsford
- Cheltenham
- Chester
- Croyden
- Derby
- Durham
- Ellon
- Enfield
- Exeter
- Fort William
- Golders Green
- Gosforth Centre
- Guildford
- Harrow
- Hexham
- Irvine
- Kendall
- Kensington
- Kingston
- Liverpool
- Lochgilphead
- London Haymarket
- Milton Keynes
- Newton Stewart
- Norwich
- Oxford
- Reading
- Southampton
- St Albans
- Swindon
- Turrif
- Wolverhampton