Bank of Scotland tells island customers: get the ferry
The Bank of Scotland has suggested customers go over the sea to Skye for banking services after closing two branches in the Outer Hebrides.
Bank of Scotland, part of Lloyds Banking Group, announced two branches, Lochmaddy on Uist and Tarbert on Harris, will close in February, leaving just two Bank of Scotland branches out of a previous four for the entirety of the remote Outer Hebrides.
The branches pencilled for closure are currently open just a few days a week between 10am and 2.30pm. A third branch, in Ullapool on the mainland, will close in October.
A trip to the closest bank branch may now take customers two hours by road and an alternative branch suggested by Bank of Scotland would require a ferry trip to Skye, critics suggested.
It could mean a round trip of more than six hours across the “Little Minch”, one of the stretches of water which separates the Outer and Inner Hebridies.
SNP MSP Alasdair Allan told Hebrides News the closures were “disappointing” and asked if an at least two-hour round trip would be seen as acceptable on the Scottish mainland.
He said: “Would a six-hour, or even a two-hour, round-trip to access a branch be seen as acceptable for customers in the central belt?
“After a taxpayer-funded bailout of £30bn following 2008’s financial crash, surely the Bank of Scotland can do better than this for its customers, particularly a number of elderly or vulnerable users, for whom making the switch to online or over-the-phone banking could be extremely difficult.”
Leader of the Western Isles Council (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar), Paul Steele said: “The Comhairle [council] wants to see thriving communities throughout the Western Isles and reducing access to local banks is a backward step.
“The Bank of Scotland claims: ‘We are the Bank of Scotland, and we are by your side.’
“I would call on the Bank of Scotland to live up to that claim, reconsider this move and be onside with the people of Harris and North Uist.”
The City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, requires banks to consider the impact of closures on cash access in the area and can delay closures if it believes firms have fallen short of expectations.
The Bank of Scotland said that as more people were banking online, transactions at the branches had fallen by 59pc in recent years, leading to the “difficult decision” to close.
A Bank of Scotland spokesman said: “The local Post Office in each town offers everyday banking, alongside other ways to bank, such as over the phone and online. After the branches close our community bankers will be on hand to support customers in each area.”
The bank added that 71pc of personal customers in Lochmaddy and Tarbert already use other ways of banking, such as mobile, internet or phone banking.
Since 2015, 53pc of Scotland’s bank branches have closed, the highest percentage across all four nations. A fifth of free-to-use ATMS have also shuttered.
Approximately 10pc of Scottish residents are reliant on cash, according to a Scottish Affairs Committee report from 2022.
Virgin Money customers faced a 80-mile trip including a ferry transfer to Fort William when the Portree branch closed in February 2022, the report said.
Natwest previously offered a “Flying Banker” service for the remote Orkney Islands, which saw Anne Rendall clock up nearly 12,000 trips over a 31-year long career before retiring in August 2019, ending the service.
Island-dwellers often struggle to access banking and cash services. The Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, no longer have any bank branches on the “off islands”, although there is a Lloyd’s and a Barclays on St Mary’s.
