Jamie Stone urges banks to work together and provide 'banking hubs'

Far north MP Jamie Stone is urging banks to pool resources and open "banking hubs" in the Highlands, following a series of branch closures.

Writing to Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale, Royal Bank of Scotland and TSB, Mr Stone has called on these banks to invest in combined community banking facilities to address the banking crisis now facing the Highlands.

At a recent meeting attended by Mr Stone, John Glen the Economic Secretary to the Treasury told MPs that the one-stop business banking hubs were now the subject of several pilot schemes in large English conurbations.

Mr Stone is calling for a similar scheme to be launched in Sutherland to provide shared personal banking facilities.

He said: “My constituents shouldn’t have to travel over a hundred miles just to access banking services. I’m sick and tired of this treatment of people living in rural areas and its about time bank bosses realised one-size-fits-all solutions don’t cut it in vast, rural areas.

“Patchy internet access and closing Post Office branches mean that the ‘alternatives’ suggested by banks are simply not available.

“Pilots are in place down south and they are now acutely needed in Sutherland and the Highlands more widely - so banks must put these in place where we now desperately need them.

“If banks were to work together they could provide a joint branch in every community over a certain size giving customers face-to-face advice and the ability to accept cash and cheques, regardless of which bank you are actually with. And that is what I’m asking the banks to do.”

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