An independent reviewer has been appointed to carry out a study into the future of 10 closure-threatened RBS bank branches in communities in Scotland.
RBS personal banking director Simon Watson told MSPs yesterday that details of the contract with the assessors would be revealed in the “coming days”.
The bank announced in February that it was to keep 10 branches open until at least the end of the year, with an independent review to be carried to decide their future.
The move offered a temporary reprieve for branches in Beauly, Castlebay, Inveraray, Kyle of Lochalsh and Tongue, but 52 others were still facing closure in Scotland.
During a grilling by Holyrood’s economy committee yesterday, Mr Watson said: “There are 10 branches that are going for review and we’ve made the appointment of the independent reviewer, and that is now with them to satisfy themselves that they are looking at everything that they need to do, and that will inform the final contract.
“We should be in a position to announce the details of that in the coming days.”
He added: “The independent reviewer is looking at their own criteria as well, over and above our decision-making, on which they will then base their recommendation to keep (the branch) or stick with the decisions that we made.”
Mr Watson was under fire however after failing to provide full details of the number branches which have already closed in Scotland since 2010, as requested by the committee.
The MSPs were told that Bank of Scotland had reduced its number of branches from 293 to 206 in the period, while Clydesdale had gone from 150 to 71, but Mr Watson could only say that RBS had a “similar” sized network to Bank of Scotland in 2010, and was now “just short” of 100.
Speaking after the hearing, Labour’s Jackie Baillie said: “It’s not good enough that bosses had no clue on branch closures and failed to answer such basic questions.”
Meanwhile, Aberdeenshire East MSP Gillian Martin quizzed the panel on whether they held any consultation with customers and communities before taking the decision to shut a branch.
But the committee was told that pre-consultation with customers was not a factor in the decision-making process.
Robin Bulloch, managing director at Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland, said: “We don’t consult formally as has been said already it’s not a requirement of the standard.
“I would be concerned with a pre-consultation creating quite a high degree of uncertainty for customers and colleagues about the possible outcome.”