Dudley Building Society reinforces commitment to physical branches

And, in an ambitious move, the business has also embarked on a new study to find new locations for further stores in the Black Country, even considering expanding its search as far as Shropshire and Worcestershire.

An advertising campaign started this week, including a significant presence in Merry Hill Shopping Centre, that saw big screen messages with the lead line ‘Tara-a-bit banks, hello Dudley’.

The campaign, underlining the society's commitment to local branches, is be rolled out across the region.

James Paterson, Chief Executive of the Dudley Building Society, said: "People still really value the physicality of a branch service and the personal service, safety and security it brings.

"Locally we are seeing banks exit from the market in a big way in terms of removing that physical presence.

"We have seen £20m in new savings applications into the Dudley Building Society in the past four weeks which shows that there's still a huge demand for those offering a good product and physical service, alongside the option of online banking”.

Mr Paterson confirmed that Dudley Building Society was looking to open new branches, moving forward, if the right locations can be found.

"We want to let people know that we are here to stay and we want to make sure we maintain our branch network” he said.

"We are exploring further branch openings and having a think about we might open those branches.

"We have launched a study and we are looking to work out where people live and work and what areas across the Black Country would welcome a new branch.

"We will make genuine efforts to start new branches, thinking about areas which may well now be without branches and where we may be able to go in and support customers.

"That's something we are actively trying to do and it's a case of watch this space. Hopefully, we will be in a place later this year when we will have more clarity on where such locations might be.”