The British lender HSBC announced on Wednesday that it will close 114 branches in Britain starting in April 2023.

The British lender HSBC announced on Wednesday that it will close 114 branches in Britain starting in April 2023. This announcement is the most recent in a series of similar ones made by retail banks in the nation as they reduce their networks in an effort to reduce expenses.

In line with its competitors, including Lloyds Banking Group, which has also closed branches recently, HSBC has attributed the move to a shift in consumer behaviour toward online banking.  

The remaining 327 branches of HSBC will receive tens of millions of pounds in upgrades, according to the bank.

The bank stated that while it will make an effort to redistribute affected employees, roughly 100 positions would be lost.

As more individuals bank online and lenders attempt to save expenses, banks have closed hundreds of branches in recent years.

"People are altering the way they bank, and foot traffic in many branches is at an all-time low with no indications of it returning," said Jackie Uhi, its managing director of UK distribution.

"Banking remotely is becoming the norm for the vast majority of us", she added.

She claimed that HSBC was spending a lot on "post-closure" initiatives, such as giving away tablets to some branch customers so they could conduct banking transactions online and providing coaching to help them switch to digital banking.

The new closures follow HSBC's announcement in March that it will close 69 branches by this autumn.

It claimed that over the previous five years, foot traffic had decreased by 50% at three-quarters of the branches scheduled to closure.

Since the pandemic, the tendency has accelerated, with some HSBC locations now serving fewer than 150 individuals each week, it was claimed.

(Sources: investing.com, skynews.co.uk, bbcnews.co.uk)