High St set for more branch closures as Santander snaps up rival TSB in £2.9bn deal
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Santander yesterday admitted that branches could be closed and jobs lost as it takes over rival TSB.
The Spanish bank, led by Ana Botin, also hinted that the TSB brand could disappear from the High Street, though no decisions have yet been made.
The comments came a day after TSB’s Spanish owner Sabadell agreed to sell the lender to Santander in a deal worth up to £2.9billion. It is expected to complete at the start of next year.
TSB employs 5,000 people operating out of 175 branches while Santander UK has 349 branches with 18,000 staff.
Asked about closures and job losses, Santander’s UK boss Mike Regnier said: ‘There will be efficiencies that we expect to make.’
Santander expects to shave 13 per cent off the combined costs of Santander UK and TSB as a result of the takeover.
Regnier said that will ‘come from a number of areas’, which will include bringing two IT platforms into one as well as back office functions.
Speaking to the BBC, he added: ‘All of us have been reducing and trimming the size of our branch networks.
‘There’s no point having two branches in the same town serving the same customers so there will be opportunities. When we complete the integration – and that won’t happen for a few years – at that point we’ll take a look and make decisions then.’
The comments are likely to alarm campaigners who say the closure of huge numbers of bank branches over recent years – as many customers shun them in favour of online banking – has left the vulnerable and elderly in limbo.
TSB had more than 600 branches when the brand was revived and spun out of Lloyds Banking Group in 2014.
It was bought for £1.7billion by Sabadell and since then has shrunk dramatically.
Figures from consumer group Which? show TSB has shut 459 branches since 2015 while Santander has axed 493.
The deal came despite persistent speculation this year that Santander planned to leave the UK. But Regnier yesterday reiterated its commitment to Britain, saying it had ‘invested an awful lot in the UK’ and the deal was a ‘vote of confidence’.
He said that the takeover would help accelerate its growth plan and ‘create one of the strongest, most competitive banks in the UK’.
Regnier said TSB was a powerful brand but that ‘typically at Santander we tend to use the Santander brand on the High Street around the world. That’s the approach we normally take.’
Jenny Ross, Which? Money editor, said the deal ‘could understandably be concerning for some TSB and Santander customers, particularly those who prefer to use a local branch for their banking’.
She added: ‘If this deal goes ahead, the Financial Conduct Authority must look closely at any planned branch closures to ensure that there is no risk of customers, especially those with disabilities, losing access to local banking services or cash.’
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