Birmingham Midshires to bid adieu to High Street |
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Published
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Mon, 19 Sep 2005 00:35
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LONDON - The High Street is to be poorer after it was announced that the Birmingham Midshires will be shut down by the owner HBOS. This move will see almost 48 of the 67 remaining branches shut down and result in job losses for 470 staff.
However, HBOS said that it would integrate the staff into its Halifax bank or offer them voluntary redundancy. The remaining 19 branches are to be rebranded as Halifax. Union officials are however not satisfied with this commitment, "This is devastating news for staff and represents a further reduction in choice for the consumer. The union has worked with the company to ensure there will be no compulsory redundancies," said Gwyn Bates, Amicus national officer.
The Wolverhampton-based chain came into the possession of Halifax in 1999. After Halifax and Bank of Scotland merged in 2001, the chain became a part of HBOS. BM was a market leader in the buy-to-let and self-certification mortgage segment. Birmingham Midshires said that although about 80,000 of its 700,000 customers used the bank branches regularly, they would now switch over to online banking or use Halifax or Bank of Scotland outlets. Nigel Stockton, BM's managing director said, "The business model has changed and we're becoming a direct and intermediary business."
HBOS head of communications Shane O'Reardon was more forthcoming and said that the closure of BM's branches would allow them to focus on more direct business, "There is a Halifax branch within 300 metres of each of these. We announced back in 2000 that Birmingham Midshires was going to focus on direct business and Midshires closed 46 branches then. Midshires has 700,000 customers and three quarters do all their business with us directly or through brokers," he said. This change in the bank branches is expected to be completed by January to March 2006.
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