The last bank in the town of South Essex will close in August this year.

Source: motionarray.com

Lloyds Banking Group announced that the Grover Walk branch, Corringham, will be closed on August 21. As a result, the East Thurrock area will be left without a bank.

Lloyds Banking Group is currently implementing a strategy of phasing out the use of traditional branches, the totality of which is a physical network of regional presence. The financial institution justifies this concept of activity by the fact that the growth in popularity of Internet banking has reached the level after which standard bank branches began to lose the meaning of their existence against the background of changing consumer preferences regarding the format of receiving services and performing operations.

Earlier, this banking group announced the closure of 18 facilities in Halifax and 22 Lloyds units across the UK in the period from April to June.

The banking group reports that transactions at the Corringham branch decreased by 64% between 2017 and 2022.

Also, the financial institution claims that 79% of its customers prefer forms of banking services that do not imply physical visits to the branches of the organization. Consumers are increasingly making in favor of Internet banking and interaction through telephone communication.

Lloyds Bank is also working to inform customers about the possibility of obtaining banking services by alternative means.

A representative of the financial institution said that in recent years the number of visits to the branch in Corringham has decreased, as many customers prefer to carry out banking operations in digital format. He also said that those consumers who prefer standard forms of interaction, after August 21, will be able to continue to carry out banking transactions in person at the Basildon branch or the local post office on London Road.

Stephen Metcalf, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, met with Lloyds Bank’s Public Relations Manager for the East and South East and the head of the local branch in April to discuss consumer concerns. He said that the financial institution assured him that good support would be provided to customers until the closure of the branch in Corringham.

The banking group said that the closure of the next branch will not entail a reduction in the workforce. Employees of the branch will be offered positions in other branches or other business areas of the financial institution.

Lloyds Bank recorded a profit of $2.9 billion before tax in the first three months of this year. This figure is 46% higher than the result of a year ago. The financial institution found itself in an advantageous position due to the increase in interest rates, which over the past year in the UK amounted to 4.25%.

At the same time, since December last year, as of spring 2023, the banking group has recorded an outflow of deposits for $ 2.7 billion, up to $ 596 billion.

Lloyds Bank’s high quarterly performance was achieved even though the financial institution had to set aside $306 billion in case of a possible increase in the number of non-payments by customers. The banking group states that there is a moderate increase in the number of those who do not pay loans and mortgage payments.

As we have reported earlier, Lloyds Invests ￡10 Million in Digital ID Firm Yoti.