MP calls for tougher laws on bank closures

Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones MP has repeated her call for tougher laws and regulation to make it illegal for communities to be left without banks and access to financial services.

She was one of a cross-party group of MPs who petitioned for yesterday's debate (June 30) in the House of Commons on bank branch closures.

She said: "Between April 2015 and April 2016, more than 600 bank branches have closed across our country, with 333 having closed since January.

"We've had eight branch banks close in the Clwyd South constituency in the last six years, leaving us now with only one. As well as the recent closures in Chirk and Ruabon, we've also had bank branch closures in Rhos, Cefn Mawr, Llangollen and Corwen.

"We need to have some sort of legal minimum standard, an universal banking obligation, that prevents this from happening. There are different ways this can happen.

"These include developing what Post Offices can do, especially relating to business banking, community banking hubs and even possibly making it compulsory for a full mobile service to be available wherever a bank has closed in the last 10 years."

The MP and other campaigners will follow up the debate by making formal representation to Professor Russell Griggs  who has been appointed as the independent reviewer of the British Bankers' Association.