Hundreds of bank branches are set to close this year as lenders seek to shift their customers online. In a bitter blow to many who rely on their local branch, Britain’s biggest banks are expected to continue to shut sites. Troubled lender TSB has already announced it will shutter 82 branches in 2020 and new Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) boss Alison Rose has said she will need to make ‘tough choices’. Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) was last year accused of trying to hide the scale of its closures, as it shut locations in dribs and drabs, and has not ruled out further cuts. HSBC Holdings (HSBA) has said it has no more closures planned after slashing 444 branches in five years. But the former chief executive of Barclays (BARC), Antony Jenkins, has predicted that bank branches will be obsolete ‘in a few years’ time’. Critics have branded the closures ‘outrageous’ at a time when some towns and villages have been left with no access to basic financial services. High Street lenders axed 405 branches last year, taking the total over the last five years to 3,372. The UK has now lost more than a third of its bank branches since the beginning of 2015, and has 6,430 left. Gareth Shaw of Which? said: ‘Bank branches play a crucial role within communities, serving consumers and businesses alike. The industry must ensure no-one is left behind by the digital transition and that when banks shut their doors they don’t shut their customers out of important banking services.’
The FTSE 100 index could smash through the 8000 mark for the first time this year, according to stock market experts. Having risen by 12.1% in 2019 and 39.3% in the last decade, analysts believe the blue-chip benchmark will break records. That would boost millions of savers with money in the stock market through pensions, ISAs and other investments. The FTSE 100 closed down 44.61 points at 7542.44 yesterday, some way off the all-time high of 7903.5 in May 2018. But Helal Miah, analyst at The Share Centre, tipped it to reach 8100 this year while Russ Mould, at AJ Bell, went for 8000. Emma Wall, head of investment analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, predicted 7884. With Boris Johnson pledging to take Britain out of the EU on January 31, the US presidential election in November, and trade tensions ebbing and flowing, it looks set to be an eventful year.
Google is to end its use of a tax loophole which is estimated to have saved US companies hundreds of billions of dollars. The so-called ‘double Irish’ loophole allowed Google to channel international profits through Ireland to tax havens like Bermuda, delaying payment of US income tax. President Donald Trump has now made the arrangement redundant by abolishing income tax on profits made abroad when returned to the US. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has risked angering Trump by promising to make tech titans pay more tax in the UK. And France recently approved a 3% levy on large tech companies’ local revenue.
