743 branches shut. People paid for it.

Every closed branch was a team of local staff with rent or a mortgage to pay and children to raise, and a town full of customers who relied on them. Which? counts 743 HSBC branches closed between January 2015 and May 2024, more than half the network. Over the same years HSBC cut 11,362 UK jobs, added 15,107 in India and made $232.8bn in profit.

743

branches shut across the UK since January 2015

11,362

HSBC jobs gone in Britain, 2014–2025

15,107

jobs HSBC added in India over the same years

$232.8bn

profit HSBC made while it did it

Behind every door, a payslip.

HSBC said customers had stopped using these branches. For the people who worked in them, a closure meant facing redundancy, or being moved to another branch. The 2017 round alone put about 180 jobs at risk. In 2020 it was 46 more. In 2022, around 400 staff were affected.

Those jobs paid for real lives. A typical first-time buyer’s mortgage now costs £909 a month. Raising one child to 18 costs a couple about £260,000, including housing and childcare. Lose the job and none of those bills stop.

And while it was shutting British branches, HSBC was hiring abroad. Its own filings show that since 2021 it has employed more people in India than in Britain. See the jobs figures →

£909

a month: a typical first-time buyer’s mortgage payment (Rightmove, August 2025)

£260,000

to raise one child to 18, for a couple, including housing and childcare (Child Poverty Action Group)

2021

the year HSBC’s workforce in India overtook its workforce in Britain

Watch the lights go out.

Each square was a branch: a counter, a team of local staff, a place to sit down with a person about your money. Grey squares are the 743 HSBC has shut since 2015. Yellow ones are the 327 left.

743 closed since Jan 2015 (Which?) 327 still open (HSBC)

The running total. Year after year.

Which? kept count while HSBC kept closing. Hover over or focus on a bar for the source.

200

400

600

800

440440 closuresWhich? analysis, June 2018

442442 closuresWhich? figures reported by City AM, September 2019

555555 closuresWhich?, January 2021, including 82 closures planned for 2021

743743 closuresWhich? figures reported in May 2024

Jun 2018Sep 2019End 2021May 2024

Show as a table

Point	Closures since Jan 2015	Basis
Jun 2018	440	Which? analysis, June 2018
Sep 2019	442	Which? figures reported by City AM, September 2019
End 2021	555	Which?, January 2021, including 82 closures planned for 2021
May 2024	743	Which? figures reported in May 2024

How they did it. Round by round.

June 2015
One in six British jobs marked for the axe
HSBC announces up to 8,000 UK jobs will go, about one in six of its British workforce, with branch closures to follow. Unions say frontline staff are being punished for bankers’ actions.
January 2017
62 more branches. About 180 jobs at risk.
Another 62 closures, around 180 people facing the loss of their jobs. HSBC says it will try to redeploy them.
February 2020
27 more. Days after a 35,000 global job-cut plan.
HSBC announces 27 closures with about 46 jobs at risk, a week after unveiling plans to cut around 35,000 jobs worldwide.
January 2021
Over half the network gone
HSBC announces 82 closures for 2021. Which? says this takes HSBC’s total since 2015 to 555, over half of all its branches.
March 2022
69 more. Around 400 staff affected.
HSBC says it hopes to move the roughly 400 affected staff into other roles within 15 miles of their homes.
30 November 2022
A quarter of what was left
HSBC announces 114 closures from April 2023, leaving 327 branches. It says some of the branches it is closing serve fewer than 250 customers a week.
May 2024
743 branches shut since 2015
Which? figures put HSBC’s UK closures since January 2015 at 743.
Since 2023
A promise, after the damage was done
With more than 700 branches already gone, HSBC UK promises to keep its remaining 327 open until at least 2027.

HSBC’s excuse: footfall.

HSBC blamed fewer people walking in. It said regular customers’ use of its branches had fallen 65% in five years, and that footfall had at least halved at 74% of the branches it shut in 2023.

Its own filings tell the rest of the story. Over the same years, HSBC employed 11,362 fewer people in Britain, 15,107 more in India, and made $232.8bn in profit before tax.

Now, with more than 700 branches already gone, HSBC promises to keep its last 327 open until at least 2027.

Who pays the price our view

The pensioner who never banked online. The disabled customer who needs to deal with a person, face to face. The corner shop that banks its takings every evening. The small town where the nearest branch is now a bus ride away. None of them chose this. HSBC chose it for them.

If your branch has gone, Cash Access UK banking hubs and Post Office counters offer basic cash and deposit services for HSBC customers. And if HSBC has let you down, tell us what happened.

Which? does not count a closure where a bank closes a branch and opens a nearby replacement, or merges two branches in the same area. Totals from different dates can differ slightly because of revisions.

The evidence

16 sources

743 branches shut. People paid for it.

Behind every door, a payslip.

Watch the lights go out.

The running total. Year after year.

How they did it. Round by round.

One in six British jobs marked for the axe

62 more branches. About 180 jobs at risk.

27 more. Days after a 35,000 global job-cut plan.

Over half the network gone

69 more. Around 400 staff affected.

A quarter of what was left

743 branches shut since 2015

A promise, after the damage was done

HSBC’s excuse: footfall.

Who pays the price our view

The evidence