Santander is closing a further 44 branches in the UK, with around 291 colleagues facing redundancy.

The move comes after the bank announced last year that it would shut nearly a quarter of its branch network – or 95 branches – putting as many as 750 jobs at risk.

Following the most recent closures, Santander will have 305 branches in total, down from 444 at the beginning of 2025.

These consist of 244 full-service branches, 19 counter-free branches, 36 reduced-hour branches, and six Work Cafés, alongside 111 Santander Locals.

Santander said that after this year's branch closures, there will some opportunities for impacted employees to work in other locations.

Closed branches will be replaced by community bankers, operating either from a Santander Local or, where required, a banking hub, to provide ongoing face-to-face support.

Santander Locals are designed to provide face-to-face support for customers in areas where a branch has been closed and a banking hub is not required. These are located in local community spaces, such as a library or community centre, and are staffed by community bankers who provide money management and general banking support to customers on a weekly basis.

A spokesperson for Santander UK, said: “In response to a continuing and sizeable shift towards customers using digital banking, we are making changes to our branches to better support our customers. We will continue to invest in both our branch network - comprising of full-service branches, counter-free branches, reduced-hour branches, Santander Locals, and our increasingly popular Work Cafés – as well as our digital banking services, so we can be there to support our customers however they choose to bank with us.”

The decision comes as 96 per cent of all Santander transactions are completed in digital channels.

Since 2019, there has been a 64 per cent rise in digital transactions, while financial transactions completed in branches reduced by 66 per cent in the same period.

Over the past year, there has been a 13 per cent decrease in the volume of financial transactions taking place in branch at the bank.

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