Virgin Money is closing 39 of its stores across the country
Virgin Money has announced plans to close its Enfield Town branch as one of 39 closures across the country caused by “changing customer demand”.
Virgin Money says the number of customers using bank branches for day-to-day transactions has been on a downward trajectory for a number of years. The stores which are closing have seen an average reduction in customer transactions of 43% since March 2020 and 96% of customers in these stores are transacting less than once a month on average.
The Enfield branch was assessed with “careful consideration of the impact on the local area”, as well as “the needs of vulnerable customers and the accessibility of alternative services such as free-to-use ATMs and Post Offices”. It will close later this year but no date has been announced.
Each store closing is less than half-a-mile from the nearest Post Office, which customers can use to carry out day‐to-day transactions, including cash deposits and withdrawals, cheque deposits and balance enquiries, as well as coin exchange.
Sarah Wilkinson, chief operating officer at Virgin Money, said: “The decision to close a store is never taken lightly. But as our customers continue to change the way they want to bank with us, by conducting fewer transactions in-store and adopting the convenience of digital banking, we must respond to that evolving demand.
“Our focus is on supporting our customers and colleagues. We have considered the number of vulnerable customers using each store very carefully throughout the review process as a key factor in our decision making, and will proactively provide enhanced, bespoke care to ensure any vulnerable customers affected are supported through the changes.
“For our colleagues, we will pursue all options to retain as many as possible within alternative roles, and have had great success previously with store colleagues moving to other customer operations roles, as their skills are highly transferable.”
For each affected store, written notification will be sent to customers and posters will be displayed at least twelve weeks before they close, providing details on the alternative ways customers can continue to manage their accounts, including nearest alternative stores, ATMs and Post Office counters.
Virgin Money has also said it will “support affected colleagues with finding alternative roles wherever possible” but that some will be at risk of redundancy.
Following the reduction of 39 branches, Virgin Money will have a network of 91 stores across the UK.
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