Brendan O'Hara
Main Page: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)Department Debates - View all Brendan O'Hara's debates with the HM Treasury
Royal Bank of Scotland Branch Closures
Brendan O'Hara Excerpts(6 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. She is right: it is like groundhog day. How many times in the last nine years have we discussed this issue in this Chamber? Banking in rural Scotland has been decimated, particularly around Argyll and Bute: recently, the RBS branch in Helensburgh announced its closure. Does my hon. Friend agree that financial institutions are abdicating responsibility to the people who were forced to dig deep to bail them out during the crash? Once again we are seeing those banks putting shareholder dividend ahead of any form of social responsibility.
Deidre Brock
I agree with my hon. Friend. He is absolutely correct. I think everyone else here agreed with him as well.
Existing legislation to protect against bank branch closures is far too weak. The Financial Conduct Authority has some powers to protect cash services but not bank branches. Yet, in 2019, the FCA’s own research found that bank branch closures presented particular challenges for older people who would have to travel further to reach a branch. It also said that older people were less likely to turn to mobile banking, which increased their risk of financial exclusion. But it seems the banks can just follow the tick-box guidance and then fire ahead with the closure anyway. We must introduce a community right to physical banking services. I commend the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Drew Hendry) to introduce a Bill for such a measure. I hope for cross-party consensus to take forward something similar.
I am curious to hear whether the Minister thinks bank branch closures conflict with the Equality Act 2010—specifically part 3, which states that service providers must ensure equal access to services for all individuals? We already have all the evidence we need of the impact on communities, on older people, on people with disabilities, and on small businesses that rely on cash trade.