TSB to axe 82 of its 540 branches next year with up to 400 workers impacted as it says a digital focus is the way back to profit

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TSB today announced plans to shut 15 per cent of its 540 branches next year, as part of what it said was a 'response to changing customer behaviour'.

Chief executive Debbie Crosbie announced in a strategy meeting today the bank would close 82 of its smaller branches, which would impact between 300 and 400 employees.

The bank said it was working with them to try and find alternate roles, and would announce the affected branches on Thursday after informing staff.

TSB will close 82 branches in 2020, with the exact sites to be announced on Thursday

The number of closures is slightly lower than predicted, with one analyst telling The Times on Saturday he expected the bank to take the axe to 100 branches.

Crosbie, who stepped into the top job after predecessor Paul Pester resigned last year after an IT meltdown which locked 2million customers out of their accounts, said the move was part of a three-year strategy to restore the bank's competitiveness.

She said: 'The plan we're sharing today involves some difficult decisions, but it sets TSB up to succeed in the future.

'Taken together, these changes will help us to serve more customers, better, for the long-term.'

The bank's announcement it would invest £120million in digital solutions and become a more mobile and digitally focused lender, at the expense of its branch network, may raise some eyebrows, given how its IT mishaps over the last year and a half have seen it branded as 'totally shambolic bank'.

Its attempts to draw a line under its IT meltdown following a botched transition to the systems of its owner, Spanish bank Sabadell, were undermined by another mishap which meant thousands of customers were left without wages.

It came just three days after an official report into the events of April 2018 found its board failed to ask common sense questions and were not kept in the loop by its IT chief Carlos Albarca, who failed to tell them a test ahead of the full bungled migration only used one of TSB's two data centres.

TSB said it currently had more than double the UK average when comparing the number of bank branches per 10,000 customers, and had 'conducted a detailed review and analysis of its current network, including its usage, proximity to alternative branches, the needs of vulnerable customers and the accessibility of alternative services such as free to use ATMs and the Post Office.'

Earlier this year TSB announced 94 of its branches would be shortening their opening hours, with some now open for as little as two days a week.

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