NOT for the first time, one of the UK’s biggest banks is facing pressure to call a halt to its latest branch closure plans.

And it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which is campaigning against the latest cuts proposed by Lloyds Banking Group, has a very strong argument.

The FSB knows more than most the effects branch closures have had on small business owners. As spokesman Stuart Mackinnon noted, cash remains the biggest payment method in the UK, despite the advance of digital technology.

While that remains the case, firms will always require branches to deposit their cash. However, with continual cuts to branch networks that is becoming less convenient, and more expensive.

The problem facing SMEs was set out in stark terms when Royal Bank of Scotland unveiled plans to close 62 branches before Christmas. Until RBS, in the face of intense political pressure, handed a stay of execution to 10 of those branches, it would have meant customers on Barra would have had to make a 30-mile journey, including a ferry ride, to Lochboisdale to access a branch.

Both Lloyds and RBS owe their survival through the financial crisis to massive bailouts by UK taxpayers. It is surely not too much to ask they offer customers the continuation of accessible banking services in return.