A GLOBAL NOT A LOCAL BANK

Customers of Caerleon’s HSBC branch are angry following the announcement that the bank will close its branch in Backhall Street on the 2nd November 2012. HSBC stated that the branch is currently only open for limited hours during the week and HSBC is deciding whether or not to leave a cash machine on the site after the banks closure.

The South Wales Argus noted that a campaign to save Caerleon’s only bank from closure is mounting as hundreds of people sign a petition against the move on Friday (20th July), which has filled 14 pages’ worth of signatures. HSBC has already closed the next nearest branch to Caerleon, on Caerleon Road, St Julian’s, in June 2011.

As of March 2012, some twenty One communities in Wales had no bank, and forty seven have only got one bank, says the Campaign for Community Banking Services. The problem of closing banks affects all parts of Wales, while it is more readily identifiable in rural communities; it also affects our urban areas as well.

HSBC is closing its branches across Wales - Presteigne, which was closed on Friday 9th March 2012 (despite over 500 people signed a petition against the closure of the Presteigne branch), and in Blaenafon (where over a 1,000 people signed a petition against the planned closure of the last bank in the town), Torfaen, closed on the 11th May. HSBC says that both banks have seen a significant decline in the numbers of customers using their services and are no longer commercially viable.

Campaigners rightly claim that businesses in the area will suffer and that residents (especially the elderly) who are reliant on public transport to bank in a nearby town will be disadvantaged. Just for the record HSBC (March 12th 2012) had closed six branches in Wales between last September and December 2011, including Llandysul, Ceredigion, and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in Powys. The company has closed 17 "under-used" banks in Wales since 2009 in urban and rural areas.

Both HSBC, Barclays and the rest have been quietly closing small rural banks in recent months, and NatWest plans to cut opening hours. The British Bankers' Association says more customers now go on-line and banks must examine branch running costs.

Despite the spin this is about nothing more than cutting running costs, the banks have little (or no concern) for their customers or the concerns of the customers or their communities. As noted by the US Senate, some banks have other more pressing interests than those of their domestic customers like helping to launder money for drug dealers, dictators and terrorists, so much for being a local bank.

SONS OF BANKERS

Twenty One communities in Wales now have no bank, and forty seven have only got one bank, says the Campaign for Community Banking Services. The problem of closing banks affects all parts of Wales, while it is more readily identifiable in rural communities; it also affects our urban areas as well. HSBC is closing its branches in Presteigne, which closed on Friday (over 500 people signed a petition against the closure of the Presteigne branch) , and in Blaenafon (where over a 1,000 people signed a petition against the planned closure of the last bank in the town), Torfaen, on the 11th May. HSBC says that both banks have seen a significant decline in the numbers of customers using their services and are no longer commercially viable.

Campaigners in both communities rightly claim that businesses in the area will suffer and that residents (especially the elderly) who are reliant on public transport to bank in a nearby town will be disadvantaged. Just for the record HSBC HAS closed six branches in Wales between last September and December, including Llandysul, Ceredigion, and Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in Powys. While the company has also closed 17 "under-used" banks in Wales since 2009, but not all been in rural areas.

Both HSBC, Barclays and the rest have been quietly closing small rural banks in recent months, and NatWest plans to cut opening hours. The British Bankers' Association says more customers now go on-line and banks must examine branch running costs. Despite the spin this is about nothing more than cutting running costs, the banks have little (or not concern) for their customers or the concerns of the customers.

CAMERON'S CASABLANCA MOMENT...

PM David Cameron

I'm shocked, shocked to find that tax evasion is going on in here!

News that Barclays Bank has been ordered by the Treasury to pay half-a-billion pounds in tax it tried to avoid paying will be welcomed by many of us. The bank was accused by HM Revenue and Customs of designing and using two schemes that were intended to avoid substantial amounts of tax. The Con Dem Government has taken the unusual step of rapidly introducing retrospective legislation to end such "aggressive tax avoidance" by financial institutions. Apparently the authorities were alerted to the loopholes in the law by Barclays itself. The bank, which has not been named officially by the government, but named by the Daily Telegraph and the BBC) is the target of HMRC's crackdown. The Con Dem Government has closed the schemes to retrieve £500m of lost tax and safeguard payments of billions of more tax in the future. The Daily Telegraph understands that other major banks also tried to use the same schemes to avoid paying a total of £500m in tax. While its makes a pleasant change, I don’t think that this is an attempt to ensure that we are all in it together, merely a consequence of some pretty blatant and in your face tax evasion that even the Con Dems could not ignore it...