A BANK is set to close in Herefordshire towns as branches are axed across the country.

High Street bank HSBC has today (November 30) announced that it will be closing 114 branches in 2023.

The Leominster branch is on the list, as is Ross-on-Wye's branch.

The move comes as the bank says more people are choosing online banking over using a physical branch to do their banking.

HSBC found that the number of people visiting has dropped by 65 per cent over the course of five years.

RELATED NEWS:

Barclays closed its bank in Ross in August last year.

The bank at the time said only 44 customers regularly used the Ross-on-Wye branch exclusively for their banking, with others turning to other services such as online banking.

Ross West councillor Louis Stark previously said when the closure was announced that it was disappointing for the town, but there was at least alternative banks and the option to use Post Office services.

He said there were a host of other banks in the town, such as Lloyds, Santander, and HSBC, as well the Post Office in The Maltings, and Ross-on-Wye was arguably in a better position that other places in Herefordshire, such as Bromyard which only has one bank left.

OTHER NEWS:

These closures have left Ross-on-Wye with Santander, Lloyds, and Nationwide.

In Leominster Lloyds, Barclays, Nationwide, and Halifax remain in the town.

In a statement from the bank, it said: "The decline in branch use has accelerated so much since the Covid-19 pandemic that some of the branches closing are now serving fewer than 250 customers a week."