Bosses at Santander have insisted the financial institution stay dedicated to Lanarkshire, regardless of saying plans to chop again on opening hours.
From this summer time, branches will shut at 3pm as a substitute of 4.30pm, with many additionally switching to solely being open till lunchtime on a Saturday.
Administration say the adjustments are in response to how folks deal with their banking lately, and that the brand new format is not going to end in any redundancies.
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Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey has written to Santander to query its dedication to the realm, amid considerations the strikes are a precursor to closures.
Correspondence between the MSP and the banking group, which shut quite a lot of branches final 12 months, exhibits they declare they'll stay in Rutherglen in the long run.
Ms Haughey acknowledged: "I'm involved that these adjustments to opening hours could be the begin of a course of whereby the Rutherglen department closes within the close to future. I want to search your assurances that this isn't the case, and that Santander stay firmly dedicated to Rutherglen.
"Moreover, I word inside Mr Owen’s electronic mail that there will probably be “important new alternatives for department colleagues, who will obtain further coaching to assist them help prospects over the telephone, in addition to in department”.
"I might be grateful in the event you may verify that this due to this fact signifies that there will probably be no redundancies as a part of this variation, that no workers are being requested to redeploy to different branches, and there aren't any adjustments to the hours that workers work."
In reply, administration confirmed that "branches stay an necessary manner of offering a service to our prospects and we stay dedicated to Rutherglen. As a part of bettering our service extra colleagues who presently solely help our prospects in department, can even have the ability to take action over the telephone, after they obtain the suitable coaching.
"This alteration can even broaden the talents set of a lot of our colleagues, and I can verify that there will probably be no redundancies, redeployment, or discount within the working hours on account of these adjustments."
The adjustments will take impact from July 18.
The variety of prospects utilizing Santander’s branches fell by 33 per cent over the 2 years earlier than the pandemic, an additional 50 per cent in 2020 and 12 per cent in 2021, whereas digital transactions grew by round 20 per cent in every of those years.
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The financial institution has a number of branches in Lanarkshire, together with Hamilton, East Kilbride and Wishaw.
Saying the proposals, Richard Owen, head of branches at Santander mentioned: “These adjustments will allow us to take care of our current department community whereas offering important further capability to assist prospects who need to speak to us by telephone.
"We now have seen a unbroken discount in department utilization over a number of years, each earlier than and for the reason that peak of the pandemic, with many purchasers preferring to transact digitally or contact us by telephone. We need to be sure that now we have the correct mix of channels to assist our prospects nevertheless they select to financial institution with us."
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