UK banks are busiest in Europe

BRITISH bank branches are the busiest in Europe following a spate of branch closures over the past five years.

UK banks now serve an average of 5,000 customers per branch, more than five times the average in Spain. Research by Datamonitor found over 1,000 high street branches have been closed since 1999 as banks moved to drive customers to direct channels, such as the internet and telephone banking.

However, the migration to those channels has not hit forecasts with customers still preferring to visit their local branch.

Datamonitor financial services analyst Basel Ous said: 'Face-to-face interaction is still highly regarded by customers and the obvious place for a bank to offer it is still the branch.'

He predicted the current number of UK branches would continue to decline from 13,917 today to 13,502 in 2008. Online banking has grown to 11.5m consumers in the UK and 50m throughout Western Europe.

Ous said: 'While the internet channel has certainly become one important distribution channel, and the number of people banking online will increase, it has not ousted the branch and is unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future.'

Datamonitor said banks were reshaping their branches into financial shops, with staff increasingly focused on selling products. Simple transactions such as withdrawals and balance enquiries are being shifted on to self-service machines leaving staff with more time for sales.

Spain's largest bank Santander Central Hispano has plans to reinvigorate Abbey National's branch network after it seals its takeover of Britain's second-largest mortgage lender later this week.