Newcastle Building Society has announced that it is closing 19 high street branches. They have said that the closures are due to insufficient use by customers, which has prevented the society from offering the best possible products.
Electronically conducted business is also being blamed for the downturn on the high street, as it can mean quicker application processing than the old paper based system.
Our view
Consolidation of many financial groups is expected in the next few years. This will happen both in terms of becoming more electronic facing and moving servicing and call handling to external groups both in the UK and Asia.