The news that HSBC is considering floating its UK arm – the high street bank formerly known as Midland – is a further sign of banks returning to the past. As they try to repair their damaged reputations, old names such as TSB and Williams & Glyn’s are reappearing and the talk is of restoring virtues such as trust, integrity and reliability.
So will such “completely clean” banks (in the words of António Horta-Osório, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group) revive the old-fashioned branch, with the manager behind a desk reviewing loans and deposits? Will there be an army of bankers such as George Mainwaring, the branch manager at Walmington-on-Sea who doubled as commander of the Home Guard platoon in Dad’s Army?
The answer, despite the rhetoric, is no. For good or ill, the classic high street branch is not going to return to what it used to be. There will be fewer of them, with fewer decisions made by humans and more by computers. The staff may smile more and the branches may become nicer places, but Captain Mainwaring is the ghost of banking past.