We have received the following email from Nationwide. Please let us know if this will affect you.

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After careful consideration Nationwide Building Society has made the decision to close our Cheadle branch at 18 High Street on Thursday 30^th September. 

Branches play a vital role for our members and the communities in which they live. That’s why we extended our promise originally made in 2019 to leave no town or city where we currently have a presence without a Nationwide branch until at least 2023. We’ve committed to maintaining a strong network, upgrading over 240 branches and investing over £225 million since 2017. That’s a vastly different position from many of our competitors who continue to close significant numbers of branches. To put this into context, between 2015-2020 our network reduced by around five per cent compared to a sector average of 32 per cent.

However, for branches requiring significant investment and where there are modern branches nearby, we must consider whether it is in the interest of our wider membership to keep them open. We need to determine whether it makes more sense to use that money to improve and retain branches elsewhere in our network, particularly in areas where there is lower provision.

This is the case with Cheadle where we have five branches in a six mile radius, we know that 79 per cent of members are already using other branches and only two per cent of members use the branch exclusively and frequently. 

Locally, we’ve invested in our branch in Stockport to bring it up to date, ensuring people in the area have modern branches with the latest technology and services. This means we can focus on delivering better services that will provide our members with the best face-to-face experience and help to protect our branch network in the long term.

We would like to encourage any member who needs any support to contact their branch to talk through their options in more detail. Members can call us on 0345 266 0784 or email garry.samsonoffice@nationwide.co.uk. In addition to this we will be holding a ‘tea and tech’ event on 9^th September to help members explore online services, anyone interested can speak to our colleagues in branch or call the number above to book the session.

We never take a decision to close a branch lightly and only go ahead after it has been thoroughly assessed to ensure it is the right decision for all our members. We are now focused on doing as much as we can to help those members who may need additional support. As part of this programme of work we will:   

• Write to members who interacted with the closing branch three times in 12 months. This is above the minimum requirement of industry guidance of three times in six months. As we only offer personal banking, we do not have the challenge of communicating to businesses that recent regulatory guidance has highlighted.
• Set up a dedicated team in the local branch so members concerned about the closure can speak to someone who knows the area. Members can speak to us face to face, by telephone or email to discuss how they would like to interact with us in the future.
• Write to vulnerable members four weeks prior to closure as an additional reminder of the support offered.
• Proactively call vulnerable members who have a high branch dependency to discuss the upcoming closure and tailor individual support for them.
• Offer a clear and concise impact assessment, detailing other ways members can access our services.
• Put the details of the closure on our website as well as displaying posters and leaflets in branch.
• Adhere to the industry’s access to banking standards by providing timely notice to our members as well as clarity about the alternative places and ways to bank with us.

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