A MAJOR bank has revealed branches in Worcestershire will not be closed.

HSBC announced that it will be closing 82 high street bank branches nationally this year, after claiming customers had switched to digital banking.

But the bank's branches in Broad Street, Worcester, Bridge Street, Evesham, Victoria Square, Droitwich, and Church Street, Malvern, are not on the list of those being closed, and are instead among 511 branches that are being kept open nationally following the closure programme.

Sites being cut nationally will start shutting their doors permanently from April 23, starting with Edinburgh’s Princes Street branch, with approximately three closing each week until the end of September.

HSBC said the majority of sites earmarked for closure were within one mile of a Post Office, where day-to-day transactions could be carried out by customers.

READ MORE: Two residents die at Malvern care home after Covid-19 outbreak

Jackie Uhi, HSBC UK's head of network, said: "The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the need for the changes that we are making.

"It hasn't pushed us in a different direction but reinforces the things that we were focusing on before and has crystallised our thinking.

"This is a strategic direction that we need to take to have a branch network fit for the future."