RBS bank closures: Theresa May confirms she won't step in to stop mass shutdown
THERESA May today refused to step in to halt the closure of Royal Bank of Scotland branches.
The Prime Minister faced calls to summon chief executive Ross McEwan to Downing Street to explain the mass shutdown.
State-owned RBS is at the centre of a political row over plans to axe 62 high street sites north of the Border with the loss of 158 jobs.
It is part of UK-wide cull of 259 branches, including 197 from NatWest, with 680 workers in the firing line.
RBS is still 72 per cent owned by the taxpayer following its £45.5billion bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.
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But commercial decisions such as branch closures are taken independent of government.
Mrs May was challenged to intervene on the matter by SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford during Prime Minister's Questions.
With many rural communities losing branches he urged her “step in and tell the Royal Bank of Scotland to keep their commitments and not close the last bank in town.”
Mrs May said the Scottish Secretary David Mundell had met with RBS bosses to express his concern about the closures, but that decisions about branches were up to individual banks.
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She added that banks were required to meet the Acess to Banking Standard to ensure that essential services were still available to customers, and that some banking functions would still be possible in places where branches were closed, through the Post Office.
Mrs May said: "An awful lot more people are banking online these days without requiring the use of a branch."
But Mr Blackford dismissed the Prime Minister’s response, saying it was time to “summon Ross McEwan” and tell him “this is not acceptable”.
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Meanwhile, the 12 back bench Scottish Conservative MPs have written to the Treasury to say they were “not reassured” by RBS following meeting with bank executives about the closures.
In a letter to Treasury minister Stephen Barclay, the MPs said measures to maintain services through the Post Office and mobile bank trucks are “insufficient”.
Mr Mundell held talks with Les Matheson RBS' chief executive for personal and business banking last week when it is understood rural anger over the closures was made clear.
