The former Yorkshire Banks in Blackburn and Nelson will close in January it has been announced.

Virgin Money who acquired Yorkshire Bank had earlier this year announced plans to close 31 stores – including in Blackburn and Nelson – with the loss of around 112 jobs nationwide.

In a message to customers sent out this week Virgin Money said the store on Church Street, Blackburn will close on 17 January, whilst the Nelson store will shut for the final time on January 18. Customers have been notified that their nearest store is on Fishergate, Preston and they can still withdraw or deposit cash at the Post Office. The move comes as more customers switched to online banking during the pandemic.

They said the number of customers using bank branches for day-to-day transactions has been on a downward trajectory across the UK banking industry for several years, and this has been further accelerated by the pandemic.

Fergus Murphy, group customer experience director at Virgin Money, said: “As our customers change the way they want to bank with us and conduct fewer transactions in-store, we must continue to evolve the role of our stores into places where we showcase our products and bring our digital services to life.”

The Blackburn Church Street closure comes only weeks after rivals HSBC invested in their branch on the same stretch. In addition to substantial work to update the exterior of the branch, including new signage, the refurbishment has seen the instalment of a full suite of self-service machines including cash, cheque deposit machines.

Councillor Phil Riley below; We are very sorry to hear about the closure of the old Yorkshire Bank (Now Virgin Money). Whilst Covid continues to have an impact and businesses recover – the projections are looking good for the town.

"We are pleased that we have all the major high street banks here in Blackburn Town Centre. HSBC, Barclays, Natwest and Lloyds have all recently invested in their buildings and customer facilities.

"Virgin Money occupied an impressive building and hopefully it will soon attract new commercial interest."