Stamford's HSBC closed yesterday, Tuesday 16 May 2023.

Initially scheduled for shutdown in April, the planned closure of both the Oakham and Stamford HSBCs was confirmed earlier this year.

Time finally came for the Stamford branch of the nationwide banking chain yesterday, when the bank closed its doors for the last time.

HSBC will also be closing the Oakham branch later this year, with 114 branches closing in total.

On top of this, Oakham's Barclays also closed at the end of April, which will ultimately leave Oakham with no banking chains with cashpoints, and access to only Melton Building Society.

Read more about the closure of Oakham's Barclays here.

Barclays, Oakham High Street. Image credit: Nub News.

HSBC says that the number of people physically going into banks has fallen by 65%, with 97.5% of all its banking transactions now being made online. They added that this has been hastened by the Covid pandemic.

Meanwhile, the number of customers using online banking has almost tripled since 2017.

In a statement, HSBC said: "The decline in branch use has accelerated so much since the Covid-19 pandemic that some of the branches closing are now serving fewer than 250 customers a week."

While the Oakham HSBC was due to shut on 20 June, a spokesperson for the bank has confirmed that the branch will remain open until the hub is created "to ensure a continued presence for customers".

LINK, a cash access network, will be providing this hub, which would work on a rotating basis, with staff from various banks available on different days.

Barclays and HSBC have confirmed that they will have staff at this banking hub on a rotating basis.

Find out more here.