HSBC customers in Chepstow will have their accounts moved to a bank 17 miles away, in England, when their local branch closes down next month.

The HSBC in the border town’s Beaufort Square will close because of “changes in the way customers are choosing to bank with us”, the firm said.

But research showed around one in three customers there relied on in-branch services and didn’t use online banking.

The firm is closing down 114 branches nationwide, including the branch in Abergavenny, which shut its doors in April.

HSBC said it had carried out a “careful evaluation” of its Chepstow customers’ banking habits and had reached a “difficult decision” to close down the branch.

Customers will now have their accounts administered from the HSBC digital services branch in the Kingswood area of Bristol.

That’s a journey of 17 miles, typically taking slightly longer than half an hour from Chepstow.

“Key account details such as your sort code and account number will not change,” HSBC said, adding that customers would be able to use “any HSBC UK branch for your day-to-day banking”.

Chepstow customers will also be able to access “some of our services” at the town’s Post Office, HSBC said.

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Explaining the reasons for the branch closure, the banking firm pointed to changes in customer habits, not just in Chepstow but also nationwide.

It said the number of people using UK branches had fallen “by a third over the past five years” and the majority of HSBC customers now used online or phone services.

In Chepstow, nearly all branch customers are registered for telephone banking and around 40 per cent are “active users” of the service, HSBC said.

Nearly two-thirds of the branch’s customers are registered for mobile and internet banking, and around one-third are “active users”.

But one in three people “rely on branch-only banking and no other methods”, HSBC’s own research showed.

Customers in Chepstow who are considered “vulnerable” are less likely to use phone or online banking services.

Only 13 per cent of “vulnerable” customers in the town are “active users” of telephone banking, and the figures are even lower for internet banking (five per cent) and mobile banking (four per cent).

HSBC has said it would give “additional support” to those customers leading up to the branch closure on June 6.