Politics: People have a right to be able to access their own cash

Last week, I met with senior managers from Virgin Money, which may still be better-known to you as Clydesdale Bank.

The reason for the meeting was yet another announcement in the seemingly never-ending cycle of high street banks announcing – always with great regret – that yet more branches are closing.

This time Ellon and Turriff are the targets.

Customers of the Ellon Branch will be familiar with the inscription upon the lintel above the front door – ‘North of Scotland Bank 1877’ – indicating that the building has served its purpose for over 140 years.

To stick with history for a moment however, Ellon holds the distinction of having the first ever branch of the North of Scotland Bank, established on 28 November 1836, a network of local ‘bank agents’ having been the practice hitherto.

It seems the branch was opened before the bank had even opened its Head Office building, latterly located in the impressive Archibald Simpson-designed building which elegantly turns the corner between Castle Street and King Street in Aberdeen.

Until fairly recently, thanks largely to there having been no less than three Head Offices of different banks located in Aberdeen, the north-east had a legacy of virtually no town or village not having a bank branch.

Times have changed however.

Now, there are a grand total of six high street bank branches in Gordon Constituency; five by the end of the year if Virgin Money proceed as planned.

It’s not hard to understand the arguments put forward by the banks when they advise they are to shut branches. Fewer and fewer customers are coming into branches they say; the decline in footfall has been accelerated by lockdown they argue; and cash deposits and withdrawals are not what they were, again, exacerbated by lockdown and people going ‘contactless’.

I get that. At the same time, pretty-much all of the banks have been engaged for years in a relentless campaign to drive their customers online. Want to pay in a cheque? There’s now an app for that you can get on your phone. (Did I hear someone at the back ask ‘What’s a cheque?’)

The competition from online banks – the Starlings and Monzos – and the overheads associated with running a branch network mean, I suspect, that we shall see one of the big four banks becoming online-only within a few years.

Notwithstanding all of this, there are still people, businesses and organisations, as well as vulnerable customers who will be impacted by the loss of their bank branch.

I’ve asked Virgin Money to see if they can expand upon what some of the building societies do which is to curtail the counter service but sustain the physical presence of the branch by deploying the staff on call centre and internet banking duties. As well as retaining the branch, it would keep jobs in the community which are currently carried out in call centres.

While its use is declining, cash and free access to it is still important and I’ve asked Virgin Money to consider maintaining a cash machine in Ellon town centre. Other cash machines are available in Ellon but these are owned by companies based in the US and one such company has recently introduced charges for using ATMs.

People have a right to be able to access their own cash and not have to pay for the privilege.