Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that its Altrincham branch is to close as part of a new wave of closures.
The bank is to close a further 54 in England and Wales with the loss of 258 jobs, in addition to 162 branch closures already announced this year.
The latter round of closures claimed the RBS on Ashley Road in Hale, which is due to close in November.
The collapse of plans to float off a new “challenger bank” under the name Williams & Glyn was behind today’s decision, the bank said.
Altrincham’s RBS on The Downs will close on January 19th 2019. Other affected branches include Partington, Marple, Hazel Grove and Prestbury.
RBS’s decision represents another bleak day for local residents who still value the presence of a high street bank.
There is just one remaining bank in Hale village – Barclays – while Timperley’s last bank will closed down earlier this year.
The number of banks in Altrincham had already been affected by the closures of TSB and Yorkshire Bank in the town centre.
An RBS spokesperson said: “As we are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other in England and Wales – NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland.
“As a result we have reviewed our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and have made the difficult decision to close 54 Royal Bank of Scotland branches.”
The bank promised to “ensure compulsory redundancies are kept to an absolute minimum”.
Just 54 Royal Bank of Scotland branches are now left in England and Wales.
