Major high street bank announces it will keep all its current branches open until 2028

A MAJOR bank has said it will not be closing any more UK branches until at least 2028. In its half-year results Santander said it will be keeping all of its branches open for the time being, along with its TSB branches. The Spanish banking giant bought TSB in a £2.9billion takeover earlier this year. The TSB brand will be phased out and be brought under Santander’s UK arm. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! Santander and TSB currently have 480 UK branches between them. Mahesh Aditya, chief executive of Santander UK, said: “I see branches as an important part of our strategy and do not intend to close any additional Santander or TSB branches before 2028 at the earliest.” He said Santander would continue to modernise its network and introduce new Work Cafes, which are free coworking spaces. Mr Aditya added he had been “impressed” with the service provided by branches and that “our ambition for customers is to combine leading digital services with the personal support they value”. Santander has said previously that it will close 54 of its branches this year. Many major banks have been closing branches across the country as more customers turn towards digital banking. Most read in Money Last month, Lloyds Banking Group announced 79 further bank closures. That included 31 Lloyds Bank branches and 48 Halifax sites. The banking group also announced plans to close 95 branches in February. NatWest has also said it will close 35 banks. Roughly 75% of UK adults now use digital banking and around half have opened a digital-only bank account, according to research from Finder. Digital-only banks are often able to offer better rates to customers as they don’t have costs associated with keeping physical branches open. That, plus lower demand for in-person banking, has led to traditional banks shuttering some of their branches. But pensioners’ groups have said closing physical branches shuts out older people who may struggle to use digital banking. Comment now