UK Bank Closures
NatWest Group to close nine more branches across Scotland, England, and Wales by 2026
NatWest Group says nine additional bank branches will close permanently across Scotland, England and Wales as the latest and final stage of its current branch restructuring programme. The sites, including six Royal Bank of Scotland locations north of Hadrian’s Wall and three NatWest branches in Wales, will shut between September 8 and 17, 2026, leaving the group with 336 branches total. NatWest also pledged it will not announce any further branch closures across its NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank brands until at least 2029, while investing around £50 million over the next 18 months to modernise and improve the customer experience. The bank said it is expanding mobile branch services to bring face-to-face support to more communities, and it will explore opening new branches where customer demand is clear. Despite the closures, NatWest says 95% of customers now use digital channels for day-to-day banking and it will continue offering face-to-face options through branches and community banking hubs. The changes come amid a wider industry shift and a government review into the real-world impact of branch closures on access to services.
Key Points
NatWest Group said the six Royal Bank of Scotland branches due to close in Scotland are in Arbroath, Biggar, Castle Douglas, Giffnock, Milngavie and Motherwell, with closures scheduled between 8 and 17 September 2026.
NatWest said its mobile branch network reaches 577 communities each week, with teams covering 14,000 miles across the UK and serving more than 144,000 customers in 2025.
The bank also said it has delivered more than 150,000 “financial health check” sessions this year.
In broader industry context, other lenders have made different commitments on branch presence: Barclays pledged earlier this year to expand its network; HSBC has said it will keep its 327 branches open until at least 2027; Nationwide has promised no closures until at least 2030; and Lloyds said it plans to close 95 sites (taking it toward 610 branches).
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