TSB to close over 80 branches

TSB has announced plans to cut up to 400 jobs and close 82 branches next year as part of wider plans to save £100 million by 2022. The Spanish-owned bank currently has 540 branches.

Detailing a new three-year strategic plan, Chief Executive Debbie Crosbie said the move would help deliver a 15 percentage point improvement to the bank’s cost to income ratio. TSB will invest £120 million into its digital channels in a bid to make three-quarters of its customers digitally-active and Crosbie asserted plans to achieve around 5% net lending growth per year. The bank says the new purpose-led strategy sets out a transformation programme for the Bank to become a simpler organisation to compete effectively, with deeper customer relationships and a better balance of customer channels.

Announcing the new strategy, Crosbie said “Our new strategy positions TSB to succeed in a challenging external environment at a time when we know customers want something different and better from their bank.”

“With a trusted brand, modern platform, and national presence, TSB is well placed to deliver – but we need to make changes to enable us to compete.”

“The plan we’re sharing today involves some difficult decisions, but it sets TSB up to succeed in the future. Taken together, these changes will help us to serve more customers, better, for the long-term.”

TSB owner, Sabadell ‘s CEO, Jaime Guardiola said “TSB brings enhanced scale and broader geographical diversification to the Group, and is a key lever to improve our profitability going forward. The Strategic Plan we present today sets the stage for TSB’s future growth. TSB has a strong starting position and a well-defined plan to deliver all the commitments.”

“I am very confident that TSB has the right team to deliver this plan and they have all the support from the Group.”

The news follows IT problems for TSB on Friday after customer payments were delayed just days after the bank insisted it had recovered and moved on from last year’s IT fiasco. Although the issue was fixed quickly there were concerns it was indicative of a systemic problem.