In light of the recent announcements by HSBC, NatWest and Yorkshire Building Society detailing the closure of their branches on Anglesey, Ynys Môn Assembly Member Rhun ap Iorwerth asked the First Minister during this week’s FMQs to put pressure on the UK Government to ensure that banks provide accessible financial services on both the island and across Wales.
 
Speaking in the Senedd today, Rhun ap Iorwerth AM asked:
 
“I’ve raised concerns in this Chamber with the First Minister on a series of announcements in our constituency.  There have been further announcements recently on financial institutions, not only banks, closing—HSBC in Holyhead, and the Yorkshire Building Society in Llangefni. They are the latest two. The outcome of this, of course, is that there is a centralisation of services in regional hubs. We’re seeing a pattern of that emerging at the moment and that does deprive people of services.
 
“Does the First Minister agree that the Welsh Government needs to put pressure on the UK Government to ensure that banks, if not as individual companies but as a wider sector, should ensure that there are financial services that are accessible to all communities in Wales?”