Barclays opens new year with plans for more branch closures

Anybody who is displeased with banks closing idle branches,  should consider that many "challenger banks" do not have any branches at all and yet the authorities allow them to be estabilshed. In order to adapt to competition claims of "better pricing due to lower costs" the traditional banks need to follow suit and not uphold branches with low usage. The politicians should make up their minds in critizing branch closures, since it is allowed for the "challengers" to operate without branches, the "incumbents" should also have the right to decide to have or not have branch offices. 

The incumbent banks have been rather resilient to the digital revolution and the challenger banks have been relatively marginal. Why? I believe that Trust is at the center of the choice still, and if you want to host meaningful money like you paycheck, you tend to use a big bank. Part of this Trust came from Banks being in our life for some time and being present in our high-streets contributed to this perception. I am not sure that this is recognised as much as it should. 

In leaving the high-street, big banks reduce this perception (even if there is a fair amount of inertia to this erosion), and they start competing on equal terms with challengers. And well, I am a Barclays customer and I have not seen any noticeable improvements to their App in many years. And this is still considerably behind Monzo and others. I am now starting to consider shifting my main & business to a challenger instead. 

And the other major strength in banking is the balance sheet. This is what allows you to provide services (particularly lending). Once the deposit start shifting, it is when it is going to start to hurt those big banks. Especially as they don't have the agility to react.