Airdrie Savings Bank to close its doors with 70 jobs lost

Airdrie Savings Bank, the last survivor of Britain's independent savings banks, is to close.

Airdrie Savings Bank. Picture: Alan Watson

Staff were told in a meeting in the Lanarkshire town yesterday that the headquarters will shut, along with the remaining two branches in Bellshill and Coatbridge.

It is understood that 70 jobs will be lost.

The bank is thought to have found the cost of new regulation to be too great for a small lender, and the Board of Trustees made the decision to close.

The move came despite many of the new rules being introduced in response to the errors made before the financial crisis by Airdrie’s much larger competitors.

The bank’s profile was raised when the Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax Bank of Scotland had to be bailed out by the government and customers turned to a bank with a more traditional ethos.

In 2010, several of Scotland’s most prominent leaders each put £1m investments into Airdrie Savings Bank, to help it expand.

However, in recent years, it has struggled as the industry has seen customers move their banking away from branches, and secure internet and mobile banking has required very high levels of investment.

Airdrie Savings Bank , founded in 1835, had already closed several branches in central Scotland.