SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has demanded Theresa May call Royal Bank of Scotland bosses into Downing Street to tell them not to close hundreds of branches.
The bank has announced plans to close 259 branches of the RBS and NatWest by the middle of next year, including 62 in Scotland.
RBS say the move is due to customers doing more of their everyday banking business on the internet rather than face-to-face.
But there are worries the move will leave large parts of Scotland, particularly rural areas, without a bank.
The Unite union said the move would “devastate local communities,” while the Scottish Government said the plan would hurt “the most vulnerable members of our society” the most.
Blackford used his two weekly questions to the Prime Minister to accuse the bank of “turning their backs on 259 of our communities”.
He said: “If the Prime Minister recognises the importance of this, she should be summoning Ross McEwan into see her and making it clear that we will not accept towns and villages up and down the United Kingdom losing banking services.
“There are 13 towns in Scotland where the last bank will be going. This is not acceptable. It is about time the Prime Minister accepted her responsibilities. Will she summon Ross McEwan and will she tell the Royal Bank of Scotland this must be reversed?”
He had earlier said the fact that the UK had bailed out the bank in 2008 at a cost of £45 billion should mean something.
“In 2017, Royal Bank of Scotland are paying us back by turning their backs on 259 of our communities,” Blackford added.
“Given we are the majority shareholder, will the Prime Minister step in and tell the Royal Bank of Scotland to stick to their commitment and not close the last bank in town?”
May replied: “The decision to open and close branches is a commercial decision taken by the banks, without intervention from the government.
“But we do recognise the impact this has on communities, and the Secretary of State for Scotland raised concerns that the House have expressed on this issue in his meeting with RBS.
“Of course more people are banking online. This is having an impact, but we do want to ensure that all customers, especially vulnerable ones, can still access over-the-counter services. That’s why we’ve established the access-to-banking standard, which commits banks to carry out a number of steps before closing a branch, and the Post Office have also reached an agreement with the banks that will allow more customers than ever before to use Post Office services.”
Labour former minister Caroline Flint then also urged the Prime Minister to restore the bank levy and use it to stop branch closures.
She said May’s earlier answers showed she “hasn’t got a clue about the concerns of small towns”, as the Don Valley MP raised two NatWest closures in the Doncaster area.
Flint said: “That’s two more on top of a record-breaking 700 bank branch closures this year, and that’s despite the big four banks delivering £13.5bn half-year profits. Will the Prime Minister admit that the government’s access-to-banking protocol has failed to keep a single branch open, and will she restore the bank levy and use some of it to stop communities losing their last bank branch?”
May replied: “Let’s be very clear, there is a bank levy, there is also a corporation tax surcharge for banks, and this government is raising more money from the banks than the Labour government ever did.”
When the closures were announced an RBS spokesperson defended the decision, saying: “As customers continue to change the way they bank with us, we must change the way we serve them, so we are investing in our more popular branches and shaping our network, replacing traditional bricks-and-mortar branches with alternative ways to bank, including community bankers, mobile banks on wheels and post offices, so that we can reach even more customers.”
“More and more of our customers are choosing to do their everyday banking online or on mobile. Since 2014 the number of customers using our branches across the UK has fallen by 40 per cent and mobile transactions have increased by 73 per cent over the same period. More than five million customers now use our mobile banking app and one in five only bank with us digitally.
“We’re providing our customers with more ways to bank than ever before - they can choose from a range of digital to face-to-face options.
“As customers continue to change the way they bank with us, we must change the way we serve them, so we are investing in our more popular branches and shaping our network, replacing traditional bricks-and-mortar branches with alternative ways to bank, including community bankers, mobile banks on wheels and post offices, so that we can reach even more customers.”
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