Wolverhampton city centre bank branch closing in October

The high street banking business plans to shut almost a third of its branches from October, with 255 workers facing potential redundancy.

The closures, including the Queen Street branch, are due to changing customer demand, which has seen fewer people go into banks in favour of online services.

The sites affected have seen the number of customer transactions fall by an average of 43 per cent since the pandemic hit in March 2020.

The Wolverhampton branch is set for closure on October 18 with the nearest alternative Virgin Money then in New Street, Birmingham

Virgin Money said 50 per cent of personal customers at Queen Street are digitally active and only three per cent visited the branch more than 10 times in the last year.

Also 59 per cent of business customers are digitally active and seven per cent have made 10 or more visits in the year.

The lease of the premises is also up for renewal.

Virgin Money said it has decided to close the 39stores based on factors including footfall, transaction volumes and the number of potentially vulnerable customers in the local area.

It said each store is closing less than half a mile from the nearest Post Office. In Wolverhampton it is in Lichfield Street.

Sarah Wilkinson, chief operating officer at Virgin Money, said: "The decision to close a store is never taken lightly.

"But as our customers continue to change the way they want to bank with us, by conducting fewer transactions in-store and adopting the convenience of digital banking, we must respond to that evolving demand.

"For our colleagues, we will pursue all options to retain as many as possible within alternative roles, and have had great success previously with store colleagues moving to other customer operations roles, as their skills are highly transferable."

The bank said it will write to customers affected and display posters about the move at least 12 weeks before branches are shut.

It will leave the company with 91 branches across the UK.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "This announcement of the closure of 39 vital bank branches has sent shockwaves across the Virgin Money UK workforce.

"While the financial services sector is acquiring eye-watering profits, they must start taking their responsibilities to customers and communities more seriously.

"Access to a bank and cash is a fundamental need for all our local high streets.

"Simply walking away from the consumers who bring the banks astronomical profits is a complete disgrace."