Bank announces closure of Wilmslow branch

Screenshot 2025-01-24 at 12.43.57

NatWest have announced that they will be closing 53 branches, including the Wilmslow one, due to a decline in customers using the branch.

The Wilmslow branch will close on 20th May 2025 - where the average counter transactions reduced by 62% between October 2019 and October 2024.

A NatWest spokesperson said: "Our customers are using digital banking more than ever before – over 80% of our active current account holders now use our digital services and over 97% of retail accounts with us are now opened online.

"Like any business, we strive to meet our customers' changing needs and expectations and we've been responding to the industry wide shift towards digital services by investing to broaden what customers can do themselves and to offer them greater personalisation.

"We are also significantly investing in refreshing our network – we expect to invest in excess of £20m in our network across the UK in 2025 to improve customer service, enhance the look and feel of our branches, and reduce the environmental impact of our buildings, as well as continuing to invest in shared solutions like the Post Office and Banking Hubs."

"Digital banking continues to provide new and inclusive ways of allowing the overwhelming majority of our individual and business customers, including the elderly and vulnerable, to bank with us in ways that they weren't able to before. But we know that a small number of people are not yet comfortable with it, which is why we are proactively reaching out to support them with this transition, having made over 200,000 calls last year. We also have experts that they can speak to for support and guidance."

This latest announcement follow the closure of the Alderley Edge branch in July 2017.

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Andy Brown
Friday 24th January 2025 at 12:31 pm
Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?
Jerry Dixon
Saturday 25th January 2025 at 4:03 pm
.......'We danced and sang, and the music played in de boomtown'
Terry Roeves
Tuesday 28th January 2025 at 6:21 pm
Left them years ago. Queues, charges, poor exchange rates, poor interest rates on deposits/ISA, poor on line services etc,, so switched to Virgin Money when first launched. Still with them.
Denise Roberts
Wednesday 29th January 2025 at 7:55 pm
What a coincidence that these surveys are done during the years of COVID when we were all locked down,same thing happened with Knutsford branch!
Wilmslow NatWest is busy all the time with cashier's sorting out customers online banking problems.
Alan Brough
Thursday 30th January 2025 at 1:05 pm
I'm a lifelong Nat West Customer but if they want me to go "online" I will do so - but I'll switch my accounts to a specialist Online Bank like Starling or Paragon as they have far greater experience in the field.

This is the reward we get for baling-out NatWest a few short years ago!

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