TSB will axe dedicated cashier roles in its branches, with 929 staff facing the prospect of retraining, changing roles or taking voluntary redundancy. In a memo sent to staff the bank said that cashiers roles would be phased out early in 2021.

Cashier services will still be operating in TSB’s 500 branches, however training will be required to assist customers with using a range of digital services and account opening.

The move comes after a sharp drop in customer visits to branches during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the bank expecting this trend to have a long-term impact on branch use.

In July, TSB’S parent company said it would need to cut costs in its UK business after the Coronavirus pushed losses to £57.5 million in the first half of 2020.

A TSB spokesperson said: “The way customers use their banks is changing and Covid-19 has significantly accelerated the use of digital services.

“When customers visit our branches, their needs tend to be more complex and we need a fully multiskilled and flexible workforce to meet them. This is why we are offering many branch colleagues the opportunity to upskill to take on broader customer service roles or take voluntary redundancy.”

On Monday, TSB users also reported issues accessing online banking services, with TSB releasing a statement saying that a "very small" number of people had been affected.

It comes as TSB looks to rebuild customer trust in the wake of a botched IT migration in April 2018 which left almost two million TSB customers were locked out of their online banking. The costs associated with the outage cost the bank £330m.

In November, TSB published strategy plans which include closing 82 branch closures - reducing its network from 540 to 454 - and to increase investment in IT, following repeated problems with its back office systems.

Commening on the news, Michael Rennie, product manager at Mendix, said: "Technology has never been so important to the financial services sector, with many in-store branches opening hours disrupted and customers having to conduct their banking online.

"The modern customer expects seamless access to online banking 24/7 and any downtime can result in lost customers and ultimately lost revenue."

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