The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it plans to close 259 branches across the UK and 197 NatWest ones. A further 62 RBS outlets are going to be shut down due to the switch to online banking.
Around 680 jobs are expected to be lost and the branches are due to close by the middle of next year.
However, a spokesman for RBS International in Jersey said there are no plans to close any local branches.
She said: ‘We have no current plan to close any branches in Jersey. We’re investing £2.57 million in refurbishment of our flagship branches in St Helier at the moment. We continually review our services to make sure our customers can bank with us in a way that suits them best.’
The banking group hopes to launch its new look branches at the beginning of next year.
The closures have been blamed on a rise in people banking online or via their mobile phones.
The bank, still 72 per cent owned by the taxpayer, is the third this week to announce branch closures and job cuts, following Lloyds and Yorkshire Building Society.
It hopes to limit the number of redundancies by redeploying staff.
An RBS spokesman said: ‘More and more of our customers are choosing to do their everyday banking online or on mobile.
‘Since 2014 the number of customers using our branches across the UK has fallen by 40 per cent and mobile transactions have increased by 73 per cent over the same period. Over five million customers now use our mobile banking app and one in five only bank with us digitally.’
