A major report on the future of banking services in the UK is due to be published this month, as banks continued to shutter local branches.
Going to the bank used to be an essential part of everyday life, but over the last decade that service has all but disappeared.
Since 2015 more than 750 bank and building society branches in Scotland have closed - more than 60% of the country’s physical banking infrastructure.
The loss of local branches has meant longer trips for customers, and for those in more rural locations the closures have hit hardest, with people sometimes left facing round trips of over 100 miles to visit a branch of their ‘local’ bank.
And the closures have shown little sign of abating. This month alone Bank of Scotland closed down branches in Hawick and Grangemouth, with more closures planned. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) closed six branches across Scotland in September, including branches in Arbroath, Biggar and Castle Douglas.
Rising concern about the situation prompted HM Treasury earlier this year to commission Richard Lloyd OBE, chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, to conduct an independent review into access to banking services.
The results of that review are due to be published this month.
Sandra Gilston is 85, lives in Lockerbie. Her local bank branch is still open, for now - but only a few days a week. And when it's shut, a simple trip to the bank means a two-hour round trip on public transport.
"Sometimes the people in the branch are the only people I'll speak to throughout the day," she says. “I usually go up on the bus, and I can only go up so far, and then walk the rest - it’s a good half mile.
“It used to be closer, when the Bank of Scotland branch was here it was easier to get to and it was open all day, but it’s a good few years since it closed now.
“When the local branch was shut we used to be able to go to Dumfries or Castle Douglas, but Dumfries has been shut for ages for repairs and Castle Douglas closed its branch.”
The former post lady and office worker said the services she used her bank branch for included getting money out and discussing her accounts and savings, as well as paying bills.
“I just worry about what I’ll do if more branches close - everywhere seems to have the same problem, my neighbours used to go on the bus up to Moffat for the bank but now there’s nothing in Moffat.”
While banks argue that use of local branches is declining as people move to online banking, a huge number of us still value the services a local branch provides. Recent research from The Cumberland Building Society found that 54% of people in Dumfries and Galloway cited branch access as their top financial priority, the highest of any area surveyed.
And in a survey carried out by Age Scotland, 70% of the 4,393 respondents - the largest survey of people over the age of 50 in Scotland - when asked about what local services and facilities were important to them, said a bank branch.
Asked if she would consider moving to online or phone banking, Sandra said it was not something she wanted to do.
“No, I like to speak to somebody,” she said. “I don’t like pressing buttons here, there and everywhere. You could hit the wrong button and then where are you?”
And Ron Delnevo, Chair, Campaign Committee, Payment Choice Alliance, said online services could not replace bank branches.
“A lot of people don’t want to conduct their banking just through digital services, they want to speak to a person, and in many cases they have to speak to a person,” he said.
“People still do use in person baking services - I’ve travelled round Scotland, and gone to towns where they’ve lost their local branches, and the story you get is very similar, with their bank saying the branch only had 30 regular customers but people saying the queues were out the door.
“Bank of Scotland has closed branches in Campbeltown, Tarbert, Lochgilphead, so instead of being able to go to a branch residents there have to travel 86 miles to Oban. These branches had been there for years serving the local community - so how is it that they have suddenly become uneconomic?
“We need government intervention and the Richard Lloyd report will make interesting reading.”
As bank branches have closed however, banking hubs have been opening up to ensure people still had access to their money.
These are funded by the ‘big five’ banks - Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group (including Bank of Scotland, and Halifax), NatWest Group (including NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland) and Santander UK - and run by CashAccess UK
There are already 283 hubs across the UK, with 33 of those in Scotland in either permanent or temporary locations.
Poppy Simister-Thomas, Cash Access UK’s Chief Strategy Officer, said: “Services in a banking hub are almost the same as a bank branch. They offer cash services five days a week, so you can deposit cash and withdraw cash, out,deposit cheques, and the banks provide a community banker, who can connect you to specialist services on a rota business.
“There are a few things that you can’t do - things that need paper forms or ID checks, those gaps are small - we’re working constantly with banks to understand what customers are doing, what they can’t yet do.
“We’re really pleased with how banking hubs are used and received - we see an average of 150 transactions a day across our hubs, and we are always working to make more communities aware of our existence and what we offer.”
Currently the decision on when and where to open the hubs is taken following an assessment by Link, a non-profit organisation whose role is to protect access to cash. They carry out assessments in any area where there is concern around access to cash services or a change in circumstances such as a branch closure.
Adam Wilkinson, Senior public affairs manager for Link said: “People are choosing to do their banking differently. The vast majority of us now can pay for things and bank digitally using online and mobile banking, so we can do most of our banking without needing to use a branch.
“There are however still around five million people in the UK who rely on face-to-face baking services. We did some research which found that 24% of adults around the UK feel digitally excluded in some way, whether that’s an issue of access to devices, or in some rural areas issues with connectivity.”
While Banking Hubs are better than nothing, Ron says they will need to offer more - and be more widely available - if they are ever going to compensate for the loss of Scotland’s bank branches.
“Banking hubs do not replace bank branches - they would need to offer more services in a different way in order to do that,” he said.
“Most are there to sell you on the idea of going digital, but they could be much more comprehensive than they are today.
“We’ve argued that the Richard Lloyd review should be calling for around 1200 banking hubs across the UK, putting them into small communities and ensuring they offer more than just access to cash.
“The banks have saved billions through the closure of their branches, so this is the least they can do.”