THIS WEBSITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
All information should be considered a draft and links may not work as expected!
Branch Closures Campaign Archive
Huge numbers of branch closures have been seen across the finance sector. NatWest Group began its programme of closures in the 1990s but the pace of closures was accelerated significantly in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The extent of closures took communities by surprise and were a major contributor to thousands of job losses in the bank.
The numbers are truly shocking! In 2008 NatWest Group, then known as RBS Group, boasted of a branch footprint of 2,381 retail branches and approximately 199,800 workers. By the start of 2026 this had dwindled to only 351 branches, a loss of 2,030 branches, with only 60,200 workers remaining. Even now, the cuts continue, with a further 15 branch closures announced in 2026 so far and job losses starting to accelerate again as the bank pursues off-shoring, cost saving and embraces AI at the price of workers.
Unite’s responses to branch closures
-
Branch closures 2018
NatWest Group began its programme of branch closures in the 1990s but they increased substantially following the 2008 financial crisis. By December 2017, the bank was starting to show signs of returning to stability and the annual report for that year would show the first profits since the crash. However, rather than pause or even…
-
2018 branch closures continue
NatWest Group, then known as RBS Group, returned to profit in 2017 for the first time since the global financial crisis of 2008. Rather than halt their branch closure programme, the bank chose to accelerate it. This announcement of a further 162 branch closures came only a few months after the bank had announced a…
-
Further 2018 branch closures
In early 2018 NatWest Group, then known as RBS Group, published its annual report for 2017 showing the first profit since the 2008 global financial crisis. Shortly thereafter, they announced their first shareholder dividend since the crash. It was in this context of returning stability and profitability that the bank launched its most savage and…