Four Danske Bank branches to close in October
BBCDanske Bank has announced that four of its Northern Ireland branches will close on 22 October.
They are in Ballygawley, Hillsborough, Mallusk and at University Road in Belfast.
It means the bank's branch network will reduce to 32, but it said there will be no compulsory redundancies as a result of the closures.
Danske Bank said it was responding to a rise in the number of people banking online or by phone.
The company has published an impact closure assessment for each branch which shows the level of transactions have reduced between January 2017 and May 2021.
- Transactions in Ballygawley branch have reduced by 29%
- Transactions in Hillsborough branch have reduced by 26%
- Transactions in Mallusk branch have reduced by 38%
- Transactions in University Road branch have reduced by 24%
In February 2021, the bank announced its pre-tax profits had fallen by 86% in the 12 months to the end of December.
It reported £13m pre-tax profits in 2020, in comparison to £90m in 2019.
'Difficult decisions'
Aisling Press, Danske Bank's managing director of personal banking, said the move is due to changing customer habits.
"Many are choosing to use alternative ways of banking with us, such as our online banking, app or banking on the telephone," she said.
"As a business, we must respond to these changes. This can mean reviewing, and adapting, our investment strategies.
"We have invested over £5.5m in 19 branches across Northern Ireland over the past number of years and we continually look for new opportunities to develop our technology to serve our customers.
Ms Press said the business had to "make difficult decisions to close certain branches that are being used less and are no longer sustainable".
"We do not make these decisions lightly," she added.