HSBC has announced that it will close its Ryde branch in August 2023 as part of plans to close a total of 114 branches nationwide.
It has been confirmed today (Wednesday) that the Union Street branch will close for good on 22nd August next year. It means that the Isle of Wight will be left with just 1 HSBC branch – in Newport.
Historically, the Isle of Wight had 7 HSBC branches but since 2011 the doors have been closing. Sandown shut in 2011 followed by Freshwater just 2 years later in 2013. Fast forward to 2015 and HSBC decided to close its Ventnor branch, with both Cowes and Shanklin following suit in 2017.
It’s bad news for Ryde as yet another bank building will be empty. Barclays Ryde closed in August of this year with the premises still sitting empty.
HSBC says that the closures come as a result of fewer people using physical branches, instead opting to bank online instead. In the past 5 years alone the number of people visiting branches has fallen by 65%.
Jackie Uhi, Managing Director of UK Distribution at HSBC UK, has said:
“People are changing the way they bank and footfall in many branches is at an all-time low, with no signs of it returning.
“The decision to close a branch is never easy or taken lightly, especially if we are the last branch in an area, so we’ve invested heavily in our ‘post closure’ strategy, including providing free tablet devices to selected branch customers who do not already have a device to bank digitally, alongside one-to-one coaching to help them migrate to digital banking.”
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By the end of next year, there will be just 327 HSBC branches left in the UK.
I used to visit my local bank several times a week years ago, however, now I do everything online and have only been into the local branch, once in the last 12 months.
It is a sign of the times – no point keeping these places open when more and more are moving online.
those luddites voting down,.. move with the times
banks are businesses and aren’t going to staff a branch, if hardly anyone uses it.
So please tell me, when you get a refund cheque from the tax office (who refuse to pay refunds direct into bank accounts) or the DVLA, how exactly do you pay the cheque in online? Banks may not be being used as much as they were, but they are still essential for some situations.
Because banks such as HSBC allow mobile cheque deposits – that being you download the banking app, log in, select the account, select cheque images, select the relevant cheque icons to capture front and back images of the cheque, press review, then click “deposit now”
you only need retain the actual cheque until the money is paid to your account, after it has cleared. pretty straightforward
Pay it into cashpoint or use the app.
You can pay cheques in with your mobile phone – just need the banking app. Basically you take a picture of it and it gets accepted. Been in common use for a few years now.
I feel guilty because although I am happy to do online banking many people older than me ( and younger) are unable to use the internet.
I totally get with moving with the times, but I feel for (particularly with the older generation) those who do not wish to, or can’t use the latest technology.
What I can’t understand is why all these large banks can’t combine ONE building in each major town to share, even if Mon was Lloyds, Tue Barclays etc.
Whilst I rarely use a bank sometimes you need to have proof, show documents in changes of address, pay in third party banks cheques etc.
I guess it would be too complex but it is nice to talk face to face when online f.a q’s, rarely have the answer YOU require.
The Post Office already offer limited banking facilities for other banks. As for your suggestion; I’m afraid it would simply never work. Who would employ the staff? Who’s counter systems would they use? Would they all use the same vault? Which bank would have access to other banks core data? It would be a regulatory and practical nightmare.
This Interesting idea of different banks sharing a building is already happening. Called ‘The Hub’ each bank is represented by it’s own individual hub manned by one member of staff .There are also multi link self service machines available and a Post Office presence. These are being trialed in a variety of Towns ( Rochford in Essex being one ) that have had Bank closures over recent years, so will be interesting to see how they work out.
Midland Bank oldest bank in Ryde taken over by HSBC then eventually closed, my great Aunts where the first to open an account there over 90 years ago, see what happens when we do electronic banking shopping we are closing everything down slowly if you shop in supermarkets and use self checkout there will be less staff eventually and some people with families need part time jobs but that will be harder to obtain. Digitally we are dependent and Russia knows that so let’s hope we have a back up plan.
This news item does not suprise me,I hardly see customers in there !! how many more banks will go ??
HSBC , the Bank that likes to say No!
When everyone is forced online and they have removed cash and physical access to your money, they will have you completely at their mercy and the state or their agents will have full control of your finances, able to regulate what or how or even if you can spend it and there will be nobody you can talk to or challenge as to what they are doing with money you thought was yours. Next they will be tying your accounts to personal ‘carbon’ allowances, something the govt are asking global banks to ‘look into’ for them and then you’ll be declined if you try to buy things like meat or dairy products or items not on the state ‘approved’ list – this is no longer wild conspiracy but is being proposed by eco zealots in Whitehall already
up to a point……as the vast majority of people already do about 99% of their financial transactions in a cashless manner, that being debit/credit card/direct debit/standing order or bank transfer transactions, the actual usage of paper currency is dropping at a every increasing rate.
The state already has the ability to shut your access to the financial system off, by simply ordering your bank to temporarily deactivate your account – meaning your debit card won’t work – therefore declined at the shop and retained if you put it in an ATM.
As for carbon allowances – it is a mooted idea, although notoriously difficult to implement would only benefit the wealthy, as they would buy credits from the poor who wont use them.
All this nonsense about ‘older people’ not being able to use the internet is just that, nonsense.
Every pensioner I know and visit has a smart phone and/or tablet. No, they don’t use TikTok or whatever the teenagers are using, but they all are internet savvy even if they’re not on it 24 hours a day.
Just about every pensioner uses an electronic card every time they get on a bus, it’s how they travel free. They’re as used to tapping on a terminal with a card as anyone else.
Paying in cheques? Some Local Authorities still issue cheques but you can simply scan these with a phone and credit it to your bank account.
So, someone please tell me why we need large, staffed bank buildings. If you need cash, there’s ATMs everywhere.
I totally agree. Whether it’s using Sky television, using a bus pass, online repeat prescriptions or online banking age is no barrier. My grandad who is 92 uses online banking with ease and loves it. Saves him the hassle of popping into town on the bus. If he needs help, he just phones up the call centre in Swindon. Couldn’t be easier!
Stop talking out of your backside. Many pensioners do not have the mental capacity to learn how to use the internet or even a so called smart phone. People who have dementia or alzheimers, for instance. What about them? Don’t they matter anymore? Obviously not to blinkered people like you.
paul – stop trying to reverse the progress of society – it isn’t going to happen.
every generation brings new changes, that a small percentage of the elderly cannot or will not adjust to – nothing has ever been any different since the dawn of time.
if someone has a serious mental illness or disease it is likely that they receive help and they are unlikely to be getting dressed, working out the bus times or getting into a car to drive, navigating the route to the car park, walking to the bank and then paying cheques or making withdrawals,on their own, then returning home.
I am buying a bigger mattress.
What happens when the Russians cut the cables and knock out all internet.
This is not as unlikely as it may seem with recent developments.