Santander announces four Scottish branch closures

Spanish-owned giant Santander said it has written to customers who will be affected by the closure of its high street outlets at Clarkston in East Renfrewshire, Linlithgow, Corstorphine in Edinburgh and the capital’s Princes Street.

The news means that Linlithgow will soon lose two of it banks after Royal Bank of Scotland said that week that its branch in the town is one of 62 locations north of the Border that it will soon shut.

Some reports suggest that Santander had tried to hide the news of the closures.

However, a spokesman for the lender said: “We would not accept we have acted inappropriately or tried to hide this news as we have fully engaged all the communities impacted.

“Santander is committed to ensuring we provide a good level of service that meets the changing needs of our customers. In order to do this we continually review our branch network, and sometimes need to make difficult decisions over our less-utilised branches, ensuring colleagues and customers are informed well in advance of any changes.

“As a result of our recent internal review, Santander will be closing four branches in Scotland in May and June 2018.

“This decision has not been taken lightly and follows a strategic review looking across our UK branch network, changing customer behaviour, branch and digital channel usage, alternative ways for our customers to bank with us, whilst supporting local communities.”