Digital-First Banking Can Rebuild Trust and Confidence

Philosophy, branch-closures, and the design of good fintech

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The Changing Face of Banking

I don’t think it’s any secret that, in the UK at least, very large numbers of banks and building societies have closed branches. Since 2015, the consumer group ‘Which?’ that 6303 branches have closed nationally — a full 64% of the branches that were open at the start of 2015. And that’s the continuation of a longer-term trend. From 1986 to 2014, the number of branches .

Some of this is of course being driven by . Some, but not all. A UK parliament briefing note in 2020 points out that at least some of this change is being driven by customer behaviour that, in turn, is being driven by technology. To quote :

Branches are less important to customers, who are increasingly able to access banking services without having to visit a branch. Visits to branches have fallen by a quarter since 2012. (p. 4)

A 2024 paper by Kail and Ongena discusses the prevalence of this kind of mass branch closure in the US. It’s clearly not a UK-centric phenomenon.

The headlines and news reporting often focus on what’s being lost — …