article_snippet: The High street banks have agreed to new industry-wide rules setting out a series of steps The High street banks must take before closing branches.
article_snippet: Existing rules stipulate that they have to go through this process only if they are closing the last branch in a town or village.
article_snippet: Banks also have to give 12 weeks’ notice before Banks shut a branch.
article_snippet: But last night Labour described the rules as another ‘nail in the coffin for the High street’, as all the major lenders have now ditched a previous commitment always to keep open the ‘last bank in town’.
article_snippet: In total more than 500 branches are expected to be shut during the course of the year, with 210 closures announced so far.
article_snippet: Of these 124 are the last branch in the community.
article_snippet: For example, some 8,000 residents of Keynworth in Nottinghamshire have been left without a bank after the closure of some 8,000 residents of Keynworth in Nottinghamshire local NatWest branch earlier this year.
article_snippet: only branch after Barclays put down the shutters for the final time.