My survey of bank closures suggests a new purpose for the tarnished Co-op

Many thanks to the stampede of readers who sent news of bank branch closures. There’s certainly a national pattern, and possibly an epidemic, with HSBC, NatWest, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank closing outlets as fast as they can, and only the Nationwide building society making a virtue of offering an undiminished service. Counter staff still in post are praised for their kindness, particularly to readers’ elderly mothers, but sham ‘consultations’ on closures that are faits accomplis are a frequent cause of irritation.

It’s clear that many towns will soon be left with no more than a single ATM plus, if they’re lucky, a post-office counter — making life particularly tough for small businesses. A reader in New York quotes Paul Theroux, in Deep South, on the ‘bank deserts’ that leave rural Mississippi and Arkansas beyond hope of economic revival: is that what will happen here?

Or should we just get over it? I’m grateful to the respondent who reports ‘numerous branches within easy reach though personally, I don’t need them’ and ‘no facile busybody “community” to bother me either’. He suggests I move to where he lives, on the outskirts of Preston. I also admire the 72-year-old widow who tells me I’m ‘quite wrong’ to bang on about closures: she shops with a contactless card, never uses cash or cheques, hasn’t visited a branch for a decade and praises (as do several others) the ‘wholly excellent’ online services of First Direct. ‘Technology has made my life incomparably easier,’ she says. Maybe we should all learn from her example.

Or is there a third way? If banks can co-operate on ATMs — as several of you observed — why can’t they combine branch services so that one multi-bank outlet survives in any significant locality? It occurs to me this could become the new business plan for the tarnished Co-operative Bank, which still has a nationwide network and four million customers of its own but (for lack of capital) was forced by the Bank of England to put itself up for sale this week.