Historic bank outlet is on nationwide closure list
The historic NatWest bank in Wimbledon Village is to close as part of a nationwide closure scheme involving 259 branches.
The RBS has announced that it is to shut one in four of its outlets, involving 62 Royal Bank of Scotland and 197 NatWest branches.
RBS, which is 71%-owned by the taxpayer, said as more customers bank online the use of its branches had fallen by 40% since 2014.
It produced a list of affected branches, which included the distinctive building at the end of Wimbledon High Street, which will shut on June 18.
The Victorian building was once a London Counties Bank and still has the LCB logo on the facade of its impressive cyclindrical turret.
The Southfields branch in Wimbledon Park Road and the Morden branch are also set to close in June.
Account holders will still be able to use the Wimbledon town centre, Putney, Clapham Junction, Tooting, Sutton and Fulham Road branches, but Barnes, Earls Court and East Sheen will also shut.
Further afield in London, Acton, Aldwych, Brentford Middlesex, Holborn Circus, New Covent Garden Fruit Market, Shepherds Bush, South Norwood and West Ealing are affected.
RBS says it expects the closures to result in approximately 680 redundancies nationwide and made the decision due to an increased demand for online banking resulting in less use of High Street branches, saying, "As customers change the way they bank with us, we must change the way we serve them... closing a branch is a decision we take very seriously."
RBS reports that branch usage is down 40% since 2014 and has recorded 1.1 billion mobile and online transations in the first half of 2017 - an increase of 41% on the same period in 2014. Mobile app sign-ups are up 43% in the same period and mobile transations are up 73%.
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December 4, 2017