Faced with a dwindling number of rural and suburban bank branches, consumers in a number of areas in Britain have banded together to form an action group to combat what they see as a worsening problem across the country.
Derek French, of the Campaign for Community Banking Services, said the situation in Britain was serious, with economically deprived areas and rural communities often reduced to a reliance on only one local bank.
He said that in Britain, about 900 communities had lost all their banks. Another 1,000 had only one and were especially vulnerable.
Mr French said nothing could be done to stop the trend because, unlike the US, there was no socially motivated legislation to support public banking provision.
'And because of the size of the tax revenue from the [banking] sector, the government has no appetite to challenge the banks and allows it to continue because they are commercial organisations,' Mr French said.
One of the campaign's reports said Britain had 180 branches per million inhabitants. In France, Italy, Germany and Spain, the number was higher. For example in Spain, there were 940 branches per million inhabitants.