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There is more bad news on British bank closures, with two sites in the Aberdeen area among those to be lost.

Lloyds Banking Group has just announced that another 60 branches across the UK are to go.

The Bank of Scotland site at 201 Union Street, Aberdeen, is to shut on September 14 while the Bank of Scotland branch in Dyce will close on July 5.

The full list of sites to be axed includes 24 Lloyds Bank outlets, 19 Bank of Scotland branches and 17 Halifax sites.

The move follows more customers using online and mobile banking.

The Unite union said branches shutting was "devastating" for communities.

Lloyds said it would try to find new roles for the 124 staff affected by the closures, which are due to take place between June and September.

The bank said the number of online banking customers had risen by 12% in the last two years, while mobile app users had increased by 27%.

Vim Maru, group retail director, said: "Just like many other high-street businesses, fewer customers are choosing to visit our branches. Our branch network is an important way for us to support our customers, but we need to adapt to the significant growth in customers choosing to do most of their everyday banking online."

It has been recommended that at three locations - Buckingham, Cottingham and Troon - banking hubs should be created where customers of all main banks can carry out day-to-day banking.

Lloyds said it would continue to operate at the sites until the hubs are established.

The group currently has 739 Lloyds branches, 553 Halifax outlets and 184 Bank of Scotland sites. Last year, it announced plans to close more than 90 branches.

However Caren Evans, national officer for Unite, told the BBC that Lloyds "should not be allowed to abandon 60 more local communities where bank branches play an essential role”, adding: "When a bank branch closes, the heart of the local community is ripped out and the results are devastating. Unite is clear that simply leaving an ATM in place of a vibrant bank branch is wholly insufficient."

It has been estimated that around 5,000 branches – or almost half of the UK's bank outlets - have now been lost or scheduled for closure since 2015.

Many big banks have been cutting their branch networks in recent years, claiming customers are spurning traditional counter service in favour of banking online and via mobile phones.

Some have said the Covid pandemic has accelerated this shift to digital banking, and recent months have seen a spate of announcements of closures.

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