
Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that it is to close 162 branches across England and Wales.
The bank said that 792 jobs would go as a result and staff would be offered voluntary redundancy.
RBS said its business in England and Wales, and its NatWest business in Scotland, were meant to form a new "challenger bank".
However, that project was now not going ahead and the bank had reviewed its branch network.
An RBS spokesman said: "We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other; NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, in England & Wales.
"As a result, we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we've made the difficult decision to close a number of Royal Bank of Scotland branches.
"Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England & Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs."
'Dark futures'
The latest branch closures follow existing plans to close 52 bank branches in Scotland that serve rural communities.
The Unite union has calculated that in the case of 71 of the 162 branches closing, customers will be forced to make return journeys of about 25 miles to reach another one.
Rob MacGregor, Unite's national officer, said: "The Williams & Glyn saga rolls on as Royal Bank of Scotland continues with its shambolically poor management of this business.
"How does a taxpayer-funded institution spend £1.8bn on a failed IT project and in the next breath demolish the much-needed local bank branches?
"Today nearly 1,000 employees have finally been told of their dark futures because the bank has been calamitously managed for too long. Ending years of speculation, Royal Bank of Scotland has effectively turned its back on the Williams & Glyn customers and staff."