MPs will challenge Royal Bank of Scotland bosses over their sums on footfall at Scotland’s doomed branches this week.
Les Matheson, the chief executive of personal and business banking at RBS, is in Westminster on Wednesday to defend his derided plan to shut 62 branches north of the border, including eight in Courier Country.
Pete Wishart, the Perth and North Perthshire MP, said Mr Matheson will be quizzed on his bank’s data on branch visitor numbers, which the SNP politician says is at odds with the experience on the ground.
Mr Wishart, who is chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee which is probing the RBS chiefs, said: “Nearly everything that we have seen in response to our call for evidence from communities challenges all their (RBS’) assumptions about footfall.
“They are closing Perth South Street in my constituency, which every time you go past, there is a queue actually going outside the branch.
“They are telling me there’s only something like 178 people crossing that (branch) threshold every few days. This doesn’t match up with the experience of people.
“There is still a real demand for banking services. We need to challenge RBS on some of their assumptions about the use of these facilities.”
The Courier is campaigning against the branch closures, as well as a further 49 across the country at Bank of Scotland, which will hit older people and small businesses the hardest.
The move has been condemned by all of Scotland’s main political parties.
The UK Government says it cannot intervene in what is a commercial decision, despite having a 71% stake in the bank.
RBS says that customers who are losing their branch will still be able to perform some tasks locally at mobile banks, post offices and cash machines.
It insists customers will have “more ways to bank than ever before”.
