Britain’s largest banks are disproportionately closing branches in the lowest-income areas while expanding in wealthier ones, taking bricks-and-mortar services away from communities where they are arguably needed most, an analysis by Reuters shows.
HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group are among banks that have cut 600 branches from April 2015 to April 2016.
More than 90 percent of the closures were in areas where the median household income is below the British average of 27,600 pounds, but the banks say they choose which branches to close on the basis of where they have the fewest customers and deny they specifically target poorer areas.
