TSB Closing 82 Branches in 2020
TSB is to close 82 branches next year as part of a plan by new chief executive Debbie Crosbie to make £100m of cost savings by 2022. The Spanish-owned bank has 540 branches and is trying to restore its reputation after last year’s huge IT failure, which hit 1.9 million customers.
Ms Crosbie’s three-year plan did not provide details of potential job cuts.
“The plan… involves some difficult decisions, but it sets TSB up to succeed in the future,” she said.
The location of the branches being closed will be revealed on 28 November after the bank has informed its staff. TSB would not comment, but it is thought that between 300 and 400 jobs will be affected.
“Our new strategy positions TSB to succeed in a challenging environment at a time when we know customers want something different and better from their bank,” Ms Crosbie said.
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Ms Crosbie replaced Paul Pester, who stepped down in September last year following the IT debacle that began in April 2018 when an attempt to move data to a new computer system went wrong.
The bank – which was spun out of Lloyds Banking Group – will spend £180m closing the branches and on other restructuring costs.
TSB was created in 2013 under the instruction of the European Commission after Lloyds was bailed out by UK taxpayers in 2008.
It started with 631 branches, which included those that were branded Cheltenham & Gloucester as well as all Lloyds branches in Scotland.
That network has already been reduced in size and it is thought that under this latest reduction the staff affected will be offered redeployment opportunities where possible.
Lloyds floated TSB as a stand-alone bank on the London stock market, but it was then bought by Sabadell of Spain in 2015.
As well as the TSB Closing 82 Branches in 2020, Ms Crosbie said the bank would spend £120m on improving its digital offering and automating some of its branches. By 2022, it expects 90% of transactions to be self-service.