BRITAIN's biggest lender HSBC is closing 114 high street branches from next April driven by consumers shunning over the counter services in favour of online banking, it announced yesterday.

The number of Brits visiting their local HSBC branch has plummeted since the pandemic, which engineered a surge in mobile banking app usage to reduce social contact.

The move adds to the 69 branches HSBC said it was ditching in March and means around one in four stores are now set to shut.

Over the past decade, online banking apps have emerged as the main tool households use to budget.

The switch to mobile banking, aided by the ascent of smart phones, has watered down incentives for lenders to maintain a large high street presence, prompting a wave of branch closures in recent years.

Footfall in 74 per cent of branches HSBC is closing has collapsed at least 50 per cent.

Policymakers have warned the shrinking presence of high street bank branches could result in people who still rely on cash - typically older Brits - being frozen out of the country's financial network.

Jackie Uhi, managing director of UK distribution at HSBC, said footfall in many branches had reached "an alltime low, with no signs of returning".

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper