Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it is closing 162 branches across England and Wales.

The bank said that 792 jobs would go as a result and staff would be offered voluntary redundancy.

RBS branches in England and Wales, and the NatWest business in Scotland, had been earmarked for a new "challenger bank" under the name Williams & Glyn.

However, that project is now not going ahead and the bank has reviewed its branch network.

Some 109 branches will close in late July and August 2018, while a further 53 branches will close in November 2018.

You can see a full list of the branches that will be closing here.

An RBS spokesman said: "We are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank, and we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other; NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland, in England and Wales.

"As a result, we have had to review our overall branch footprint in England and Wales and we've made the difficult decision to close a number of Royal Bank of Scotland branches.

"Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland in England & Wales will be able to use NatWest branches instead for their everyday banking needs."

'Dark futures'

The latest branch closures follow existing plans to close 52 bank branches in Scotland that serve rural communities, and 197 NatWest branches.

The Unite union has calculated that in the case of 71 of the 162 branches closing, customers will be forced to make return journeys of about 25 miles to reach another one.

Rob MacGregor, Unite's national officer, said: "The Williams & Glyn saga rolls on as Royal Bank of Scotland continues with its shambolically poor management of this business.

"How does a taxpayer-funded institution spend £1.8bn on a failed IT project and in the next breath demolish the much-needed local bank branches?

"Today nearly 1,000 employees have finally been told of their dark futures because the bank has been calamitously managed for too long."

In February, following a campaign by local communities, RBS decided to keep 10 branches threatened with closure open till the end of the year.

Nicky Morgan, who chairs Parliament's Treasury Committee, said there was "a risk of increased levels of financial exclusion" as a result of the branch closures, since bank branches were still vital for many people.

"It's important for the government to monitor this trend. If financial exclusion is increasing, the government may be required to intervene," she said.

Analysis: Simon Gompertz, personal finance correspondent

Staff were braced for something like this, though the scale of the closures and job losses is a shock.

Last year the European Commission said RBS could forget about trying to hive off part of its business and, instead, set up a fund to support new rivals.

Ever since then the writing was on the wall for most of the people and branches which RBS had shoved into Williams & Glyn, a Frankenstein bank which no one seemed to want.

That was the trigger, but it's also a fact that big banks have been looking for excuses to close as many branches as they can.

And they would have you believe it is partly your fault, if you've joined the legions who bank on computers and mobile phones.

For customers wondering where it will all end, it seems inevitable that we will end up with even fewer branches.

Those that survive may be dedicated to selling complicated products like investments and pensions, and sorting out tricky complaints.

Mobile banks

Unite is calling on RBS "not to abandon their responsibilities" to the communities that depend on the affected bank branches.

RBS chief executive Ross McEwan recently defended the bank's closure of its Scottish branches, saying that mobile banks are serving 440 communities.

However, the bank has faced criticism from customers that the mobile banks do not stop in each location for long enough.

RBS has also tried to persuade customers to start using online banking and its companion smartphone mobile banking app.

But the bank has had to recognise that not everyone wants to handle their banking digitally.

To this end, it announced that it had created a special taskforce to help customers learn digital skills so they could use online banking in future.

Tim Dimond-Brown, VP Sales and Operations at Quadient, said the following:

“RBS’ branch closure announcement follows hot off the heels of similar news from Halifax and Lloyds. With customer behaviour changing, and more transactions moving online, these closures mirror the current evolution of high-street banking. After all, in a TNS survey of more than 2,000 UK adults, more than a third (38 percent) hadn’t visited their local bank for six months or longer. However, banks need to be make sure that the shift to online banking doesn’t leave customers behind: in the same survey, 79 percent of consumers were concerned that customer service would fall as remote banking continues to grow – while 62 percent were only comfortable using banking applications for the most basic tasks, or not at all.

“These findings reflect the fact that the banking industry is facing an uphill battle when it comes to customer satisfaction. So how can they come out on top? Put simply, the banks that can reassure and communicate with customers in the right way will have a significant advantage over those that don’t, emerging with happier, more loyal customers.”

The news originally posted on bbc.co.uk

Equus Software, a leader in global mobility software, today announced the launch of EquityPro, a cloud-based tool that manages tax and social security liabilities on equity awards for an organization's international workforce. Leveraging PwC's tax logic, EquityPro offers companies a unique solution that leverages data from one of the industry's leading tax firms, combined with Equus' powerful and intuitive user interface, to manage the complete incentive lifecycle – from sign-on, through payments, and receipt of award.

"Working with PwC underscores our strategic focus to further drive growth and innovation in the global mobility market," stated Mark Thomas, CEO and Founder of Equus Software. "PwC's deep tax knowledge and expertise along with their commitment to work closely with us on the further development of our solution, will directly benefit our clients around the world."

Companies can leverage EquityPro's powerful platform to manage share plans for their global employees, while benefiting from the peace of mind that a globally, up-to-date tax logic brings.

"We're extremely excited at the prospect of working with Equus Software to bring our leading-edge tax capabilities to a broader market," says Peter Clarke, Global Head of Mobility Services at PwC.

EquityPro offers complete visibility into withholding results for global mobility teams, payroll systems, employees and other internal stakeholders, all while automating real-time employee communication. Click here to learn more. 

The New Payment Systems Operator (NPSO) has announced that it has taken over responsibility for the operation of Bacs and Faster Payments. The completion of this transaction represents a significant milestone for the payments industry and is the latest step in a series of developments bringing wholesale change to UK payments.

The NPSO set up the Payments Strategy Forum back in 2015 to deliver collaborative innovation and tackle long-standing problems in the payments industry. The completion of this transaction is a significant occasion for several reasons: 

• It marks the delivery of one of the Forum’s key proposals in the national payments strategy and closely aligns with our work to drive innovation and competition in the payments market
• It puts the NPSO in a good position to progress the competitive procurement of the central infrastructure on the new payments architecture (NPA), which has been kicked off by the Faster Payments Scheme, as well as the next phase of the NPA’s development and delivery
• It reforms the governance structure of these payment system operators based on the Payment Systems Operator Delivery Group’s recommendations for a more independent Board. There will be no Member-appointed Directors on the Board and the end-user and stakeholder community will be appropriately represented in the NPSO’s governance structure.

“We’ve worked closely with the Bank of England to oversee a smooth transition to the NPSO based on the Payment Systems Operator Delivery Group’s recommendations. From this point our powers will apply to NPSO Ltd as the operator of Bacs and Faster Payments,” said a PSR statement.

We now await the NPSO’s acquisition of the cheque and image clearing systems over the next few months.

This month, Fortress Security Store released their newest product line, the S6 Titan Home Security System. A competitor with other large names such as SimpliSafe and ADT, Fortress Security Store specializes in low-cost, self-monitored security systems for homes and small businesses.

The S6 Titan Home Security System represents the next generation of research and development coming from the 2005 startup. The S6 Titan main panel integrates with the existing accessories of current Fortress systems, and Fortress Security Store will be providing incentives and deals to encourage adoption of the new system.

Consumers who seize the opportunity to be among the first to try this favorably-priced system will enjoy the updated look and feel, as well as the many improvements in performance over previous Fortress Security Store lines. The S6 Titan touts a new "Over-The-Air (OTA) Update" feature, which allows Fortress to more quickly and easily resolve any potential issues reported by customers. It also adds a "Call Filtering" feature, so that customers can limit which phone numbers are able to contact the system. (The S6 Titan panel includes support for a landline phone connection or a GSM SIM card, in addition to the ability to connect to WiFi.) Other new features of the S6 Titan system include an improved mobile app, improved accessories that can now be scanned and added to the system directly from a smartphone, custom zones and names, email notifications over WiFi, and more.

Current customers of Fortress Security Store who are familiar with the Total Security and Total Security WiFi systems will notice that the S6 Titan is a natural evolution of these systems. However, Fortress Security Store is also branding this new system separately, as it represents a significant departure from the previous generations of Fortress systems.

When asked what customers should know about the S6 Titan, Program Coordinator Kip Coleman said, "The S6 Titan Security System has been a project over a year and a half in the making. I'm proud to announce this new system because it represents a lot of hard work under the surface in many areas. You'll find that we've gone above and beyond just updating the hardware, and instead focused on improving the entire customer experience. We've received a healthy amount of feedback from our customers, and we've truly been listening! We've developed a completely new mobile app, redesigned our user manuals and documentation, improved our server and backend infrastructure, and more. Keep an eye on our website for a new look and feel coming up there, too. As always, I like to recommend our newsletter as a great way for people to learn more about us, as well."

"In the near future," Coleman adds, "we'll be launching our own centralized monitoring service, all with our classically low pricing and excellent customer service. This is going to make our new S6 Titan system even more enticing to a number of our customers, whom I know have been waiting for just such a service! When you take a look at the peace of mind and value that Fortress Security Store can provide, you won't want to look anywhere else!"

Fortress Security Store currently offers security systems for sale on their own website https://www.fortresssecuritystore.com, as well as through many other channels such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart.com, and more.

Web Daytona, a leading marketing agency accepts cryptocurrency payments as of Monday, April 30. This marks the first time a digital marketing agency has done this in Florida's history, and the agency is excited to be making waves.

"It's more convenient for businesses to work with companies that accept cryptocurrency," Web Daytona CEO Gary Vela said. "Really, it's a technology that opens you up to new markets, and especially for customer acquisition. Cryptocurrency puts you right in touch with past, existing and potential clients in ways you'd never expect. Owing to this knowledge, we are fully integrating this technology into our company."

Joining the ranks of agencies in the U.K., New York and elsewhere, Daytona Beach's digital marketing leader is now officially offering cryptocurrency payment to thousands of businesses and individuals around the world. As the first agency in the state to provide this option, Web Daytona has worked in transaction options for:

• Bitcoin 
• Bitcoin Cash 
• Ethereum 
• Litecoin

With 28.5 million Bitcoin wallets currently in use, this is an ideal market for cutting-edge industries like digital marketing. Clients from across the world use these services to improve their brand visibility, distribute their corporate message and bring in new leads. When a leading marketing agency accepts cryptocurrency, like Web Daytona now does, they crack the market wide open. The results are electrifying, to say the least.