Calls for a banking hub in town have been made following the news that two more high street banks on Monmouth are to close next year.

Lloyds Bank, the last of the ‘big four’ banks in Monnow Street, will shut on May 8 and the Halifax, whose Abergavenny branch closed only last year, will shut at the end of January, less than 4 months away.

The Lloyds Monmouth branch is one of 19 now earmarked for closure, making a total of 128 closures in recent years and the Halifax is one of 32 newly announced closures making a total of 119.

Both banks, and the Bank of Scotland, are all part of the Lloyds Banking Group, and will be shutting at least 292 of their bank branches in 2024 and 2025.

The Halifax said that a community banker will now be visiting the area, following the trend set by Nat West when their branch closed in 2017.

Community bankers will have a dedicated office space in a local venue for customers to chat in private and can offer support with account enquiries, though they don't offer cash or counter services.

Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, have already reduced the amount of physical branches in recent years, as younger customers opt to bank online rather than coming into the branch.

In 2022 alone, Lloyds Banking Group announced 60 branch closures across its portfolio of high-street branches, as the company blamed a lack of customers for the move.

In 2021, they announced over 90 closures.

It just leaves the Principality in Monnow Street, the Nationwide in Church Street and Monmouthshire Building Society in Agincourt Square (soon to be re-located in Monnow Street in the former Face Space shop giving easy disabled access for the first time).

Customers can head to a nearby Post Office where they can withdraw cash and make deposits into their bank account.

Customers of Barclays Bank can access services at the ‘Barclays Local’ based in the library in the Rolls Hall in St James’ square. The service is cashless and paperless, but customers can get help with things like money management, digital banking, fraud and scams advice, bereavement and power of attorney support, and payments and transfers that don’t involve cash or cheques.