Santander is set to close another 44 branches across the UK in its latest round of closures, putting 291 jobs at risk.
The reduced footprint will leave the bank with 305 branches in the UK, after it announced plans to close nearly 100 branches last year.
The bank did not disclose a timeline for the closures but said it follows a “rapid increase” in customers choosing to do their banking digitally.
“In response to a continuing and sizeable shift towards customers using digital banking, we are making changes to our branches to better support our customers,” a Santander spokesperson said.
Over the past year, there has been a 13 per cent decrease in the volume of financial transactions taking place in Santander branches. The bank said 96 per cent of all transactions are now completed using digital channels.
Since 2019, it has seen a 64 per cent rise in digital transactions, while financial transactions completed in branches reduced by 66 per cent in the same period.
In the last decade, bank branches in the UK have been closed at a rate of around 53 a month. The total number of bank branches to shut in the UK is set to hit 7,000 this year as lenders continue to retrench from the high street.
NatWest Group, made up of NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, has shut 1,529 sites in the last 10 years, with Lloyds Banking Group having cut around 1,463 branches.
Banks must “avoid causing harm” by making sure that any proposed alternative service is in place and accessible to customers before a branch closure, according to Financial Conduct Authority guidance.
Santander will continue investing in its work cafés across the UK, with plans to open additional sites later this year. Last month, the bank opened its sixth work cafe in Oxford.
Santander has seen a near 200 per cent rise in monthly account openings across five of its UK bank branches since their transition to work cafés, as first reported by The Banker.
The Santander spokesperson said: “We will continue to invest in both our branch network — comprising full-service branches, counter-free branches, reduced-hour branches, Santander Locals, and our increasingly popular work cafés — as well as our digital banking services, so we can be there to support our customers however they choose to bank with us.”
Santander is set to become the third-largest bank in the UK by personal current account balances and fourth-largest in mortgages once it completes its acquisition of TSB later this quarter.