MHK’s Bid to Secure Bank Services

With the future of another town’s last branch in doubt, Tynwald is going to be asked to place legal obligations on the last bank in town.

A planning application for a new ATM has raised concerns over the future of Barclays’ operation in Castletown as it seeks to install a new machine just a minute away from its current branch.

With the potential closure concerning residents and business owners, MHK Jason Moorhouse told Gef he is ‘bringing a Motion to July Tynwald to place a legal obligation on the last bank in our towns and villages to provide long term core banking facilities for local businesses and residents’.

While the potential of Barclay’s closing it’s branch, which the bank has not confirmed, nor denied, has concerned the Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK, Mr Moorhouse said that what the bank seems to be putting in place if it is to close its branch, is what his motion would seek to enforce.

He said: ‘The Motion has the aim of formalising what the current providers see as the best practice, as exemplified by what Barclays is doing in Castletown. It has the potential to ensure that core banking services will remain in our towns and villages for local people, visitors and businesses.’

While the plans of Barclays will help to ensure there is an ATM in Castletown, the move to a cashless society is one that is on an unstoppable march and has led to the decline in counter services across the island that has left villages like Onchan and Laxey, as well as the entire west of the island, with no regular banking services.