Glengormley branch of Santander of on Farmley Road to close

The bank announced on January 29 the closure of 44 premises across the UK in a effort to “transform its branch network in response to changing customer behaviour” – in particular, a sizeable shift towards digital banking.

The closing branches will be replaced by Community Bankers, operating either from a Santander Local or, where required, a Banking Hub, to provide ongoing face-to-face support for communities.

The decision puts approximately 291 colleagues across the UK at risk of redundancy if the proposals proceed after consultation with the unions has been completed.

However, Santander said there will be a number of redeployment opportunities that impacted colleagues can apply for.

A statement on the company’s website read: “Santander has seen a rapid increase in customers choosing to do their banking digitally, with 96 percent of all transactions now being completed in digital channels.

"Since 2019, there has been a 64 percent rise in digital transactions, while financial transactions completed in branches reduced by 66 percent in the same period. Over the last year alone, there has been a 13 percent decrease in the volume of financial transactions taking place in branch.

"In addition, since 2019, the bank has seen 83 percent of current accounts opened digitally; a 67 percent increase in mobile banking users; a 109 percent increase in mobile banking app transactions, and a 70 percent increase in mobile logins.”

A spokesperson for Santander UK added: “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.

"We will continue to invest in both our branch network - comprising of 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.”

All Santander current and business account holders can also bank using one of over 11,000 Post Office branches nationwide, with all branches that are closing are within 1.4 miles of the nearest Post Office, the company added.