Letter: Bank branch closures are not fair on our communities

The closure letter was not correctly dated and not even signed by senior management who have taken the decision – only by the local manager.

A spokesman for HSBC claims the closure of the branches is due to the increase in online and telephone banking.

May I remind HSBC management that not everyone is online and in many rural areas broadband is difficult to achieve, in my case its response time is half that of the area and regularly drops out causing many problems.

It is also extremely presumptuous of the HSBC management to believe and even expect that all have a computer. The process of telephone banking is also flawed; contact is with a call centre with staff reading off a menu not being able to think outside the box to fully understand a customer's requirement.

I have experienced telephone banking that caused me three days of problems regarding a money transfer to Europe creating a great deal of embarrassment with the bank paying over £300 in compensation. Customers will also be subject to callers who pretend to be the bank and will probably be the victim of fraud – the Data Protection Act means the recipient cannot question the caller on security only to provide the caller with the requested information – nonsense – the recipient of the call must be able to ask what information the caller has on them.

The banks will confirm that they do not make calls – this is little comfort for the individual who may feel they have a problem with the bank – people are quite vulnerable from unscrupulous callers.

If we go back in time, banks were set up for the benefit of the man in the street.

Over the last 12 months it seems that 28 branches have closed in Wales, the idea that certain customers must rely on public transport to access the nearest branch is totally unacceptable.

The way forward is that a community bank is established that includes several communities. Let's do it!

R Hughes, Wrexham

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