Against a backdrop of continuing bank branch closures and the withdrawal of face to face financial services, the North East’s largest building society is actively increasing its branch network.
Newcastle Building Society will have four more branches by the end of 2019 than at the start of the year.
Andrew Haigh, chief executive, said:
“We are committed to a presence on high streets across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire and are delivering this with a multi-million pound branch network investment programme.
“Far from reducing our network we are growing it from 27 branches to 31 by the end of 2019, a 14% increase to the network. We know there is a need and a demand for high street financial services and we are working, sometimes in quite creative ways, to deliver that for our customers.”
In 2019 the Society has refurbished, relocated and relaunched six branches to create modern and bright environments and will refurbish another four branches by the end of the year.
A new branch in Barnard Castle was opened in September and this will be followed in November by a new branch in Bishop Auckland. By the end of 2019 the Society will also have opened two new community branches to serve the deeply rural communities of Hawes and Wooler.
In 2020 there are plans to refurbish, and in some cases relocate three other branches and to continue its extensive branch modernisation programme.