MORE than 250 regular users of a Gwent bank will have their accounts moved to another branch, nine miles away, next month.

HSBC is closing down its Blackwood branch, in High Street, on July 25 as part of a UK-wide cost-cutting exercise blamed on changing customer habits.

The firm has already closed branches in Abergavenny, Chepstow and Pontypool this year, and Blackwood will be the latest casualty on a list of 114 earmarked for closure around the UK in 2023.

Accounts held at the Blackwood branch will move to the HSBC in Cardiff Road, Caerphilly – that’s a distance of nearly nine miles or, on public transport, a journey which would take an estimated 53 minutes.

Customers will be able to access their accounts and other services from any HSBC branch, the firm said.

The bank’s own research found the closure would impact 156 personal customers and 114 business customers who have used the Blackwood branch regularly in the past year.

It said “changes in the way customers are choosing to bank with us” had meant the number of customers had fallen by a third across the UK in the past five years.

The majority of customers in Blackwood were signed up for alternative technologies such as online banking, the firm added.

HSBC estimated 94 per cent of customers were registered for telephone banking, and around one-third of those people were active users of the service.

That’s higher than the take-up of other technologies. Slightly more than half of HSBC Blackwood customers are registered for either internet or mobile banking, and the number of active users is much lower – around 28 per cent for mobile services, and just 20 per cent for internet banking.

Many customers in the town in fact rely solely on in-branch services (42 per cent).

HSBC said it would offer “additional support up to the closure” of the branch for its vulnerable customers who do not use “alternative banking channels” such as online or mobile services.

The firm also has an agreement with the Post Office to allow HSBC personal customers to use basic services such as paying in cash or cheques, withdrawing money, or checking their balances.

The nearest Post Office to the Blackwood HSBC branch is at Unit 7, Market Place in the town.