SANTANDER will close its Runcorn branch along with 110 others due to the ongoing shift towards mobile and online banking accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mobile and online transactions have been growing by 20 per cent each year, with almost two thirds of transactions now digital.

Branch transactions fell by a third over two years prior to the pandemic and declined by a further 50 per cent in 2020 at the height of the health crisis.

Santander branches will be closing between June and August with the Halton Lea store set to close on July 1.

Adam Bishop, head of branches at Santander, said: “Branch usage by customers has fallen considerably over recent years so we have made the difficult decision to consolidate our presence in areas where we have multiple branches relatively close together.

“We will provide every support to customers of closing branches to find alternative ways to bank with us that best suit their individual needs.

“We are also working alongside our unions to support colleagues through these changes and to find alternative roles for those impacted wherever possible.

“We continue to believe that branches have an important role to play and we expect the size of our network to remain stable for the foreseeable future.”

Santander has said it expects to find roles for a significant number of staff affected by the changes.

Most of the branches being closed are less than three miles from another Santander branch, and the furthest is five miles.

The closures will leave a network of 452 Santander branches across the UK.