Banking News

This week, consumers were faced with more bank closures as TSB announced it is planning on closing 82 of its branches across the UK. These closures are part of an ongoing trend that has seen thousands of high street branches close their doors, as banks look for ways to cut costs and focus their attention to online and mobile banking.

Here we take a look at how bank closures are impacting consumers and what alternative banking options are available.

As cash machines and branches continue to close across the country, digital banking is becoming increasingly important. However, as the headlines over the last couple of weeks have shown, depending on digital banking alone can leave customers vulnerable to not being able to access to their accounts. 

Last week, BBC Watchdog reported that some Monzo customers had their accounts frozen due to investigations into suspicious account activity. While most accounts were frozen for a few hours, some customers were unable to access their money for a number of days. It should be noted that this is not unique to Monzo, as all banks are under legal obligation to freeze accounts if they have been flagged by the National Crime Agency (NCA) for suspicious activity. Banks also often freeze accounts as a way to protect customers from potential fraud or cyber crime that could be taking place. Normally, banks will aim to get the matter resolved as quickly as possible and, if the activity is discovered to not be suspicious, will reactivate the account immediately.

Barclays has reversed its controversial decision to no longer accept over-the-counter cash withdrawals at the Post Office. The u-turn will allow Barclays customers to access free banking services including getting cash using their debit card for the next three years.

Barclays made the decision in early October and has faced fierce criticism from consumers and politicians as concerns grow over the dwindling number of bank branches available to those especially in rural communities, and the reductions on free-to-use ATMs.

This week challenger bank Revolut was revealed to be the fastest-growing bank in Europe, having registered a growth of 3 million users this year compared to 2018.

According to figures released by LernBonds, Revolut has reached 6 million customers in 2019, which is double the number of customers it had last year. In addition to the rapid growth of Revolut, another challenger bank, N26, has increased its customers by 1.5 million users in the past year, while it is estimated that Monzo has expanded by 150%, from 1 million to 2.5 million customers.