It comes as the number of major bank branches in Northern Ireland has fallen to just 100<\/a> following the closure of four Santander<\/a> branches in recent weeks.<\/p>\n The four branches have now joined the list of vacant retail units on the north\u2019s commercial property market.<\/p>\n The closure of Santander\u2019s Banbridge branch on May 19 brought to 70 the total number of banks lost in the north in the past five years.<\/p>\n Ulster Bank<\/a> was responsible for 19 of those closures.<\/p>\n Nine branches were shuttered in late 2022<\/a> with another 10 closed in 2024<\/a>, slashing its network from 44 to 25 in just two years.<\/p>\n Despite the closures, Ulster Bank still retains the north\u2019s largest branch network of the major retail banks.<\/p>\n Danske Bank currently has a network of 24 branches, ahead of Bank of Ireland (13), Nationwide (13), Santander (10), AIB (7), Halifax (6), with Barclays and HSBC each operating just one remaining branch in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n Nationwide is the only major lender not to close any branches in the north in the past five years.<\/p>\n In a statement on Friday, NatWest said while 95% of its customers now choose to bank digitally for their day-to-day banking needs, it recognises in person support remains an important part of how customers manage their finances, especially in those important life moments.<\/p>\n The banking group said it will commence a new long-term investment programme in its branch footprint. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is an important moment for our customers and the communities we serve,\u201d said Solange Chamberlain, CEO of retail banking at the NatWest Group.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are investing to offer customers a seamless mix of ways to bank with us, including over the phone, digitally, or via our free to use ATM network \u2014 while continuing to support those who prefer face-to-face banking in branches and community banking hubs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not announce any further branch closures until at least 2029 and are expanding more flexible and accessible ways to bank, with enhanced support to help customers act with confidence and achieve their financial goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Ulster Bank also operates a mobile branch network, which it says reaches up in 48 communities across the north.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group behind the north\u2019s largest bank network has announced a freeze on branch closures for three years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[288],"tags":[289,14851,23618,38892],"class_list":["post-100665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-danske-bank","tag-danske-bank","tag-natwest","tag-santander","tag-ulster-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116697429880568008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Live:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OGWGZFKFDFGD5JWH7BB3IMK7FM.png\")
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