TESCO Bank is to move 250 staff from Edinburgh to offices in Glasgow and Newcastle as it moves to close its headquarters.

The Scots bank said it will close its Interpoint Building registered headquarters in Haymarkets Yards, Edinburgh and move 600 staff to its South Gyle offices, which will take over head office functions.

Some 250 customer service jobs will go from South Gyle to either Glasgow or Newcastle.

The firm said it was committed to developing a range of measures to support those affected.

The Herald:

In May it emerged that despite a clampdown on costs, Benny Higgins, the chief executive of the bank had spent more than £18,000 on taxis in just eight months, according to receipts leaked to The Guardian.

The expenses bill – roughly the amount a typical Tesco shop worker earns in a year – was racked up by going to the opera, restaurants, five-star hotels and on trips to the airport for himself and his daughters.

The details were leaked by a disgruntled worker at Tesco, which owns Tesco Bank and slashed nearly 5,000 posts last year as part of efforts to turn the business around.

Mr Higgins’ salary rose from £1.7m to £2.2m in the year to the end of February.

The Herald:

Pre-tax profits at Tesco Bank, excluding exceptional restructuring and customer redress costs, fell 11 per cent to £197m last year.

Along with Santander, the big four banks have closed an estimated 1,700 branches in the last five years.

When bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group, the owner of Halifax and Bank of Scotland (HBOS), announced 200 branch closures last month it said their use had fallen by 15 per cent year on year.

It emerged that Bank of Scotland was to close 23 branches north of the border, 14 of which have been identified as the 'last bank in town'.

A Tesco Bank spokesman said: “Earlier this year we started to establish a new business structure to drive greater collaboration across the bank to ensure that we are in the best position possible to serve Tesco customers.

"To further embed this new structure, we have informed colleagues that all head office functions will be situated at our Edinburgh South Gyle Headquarters, and that we will close our Edinburgh Haymarket Yards office.

“We are making this move from a position of strength, integrating our Edinburgh colleagues in one location is an exciting new phase of our journey and will support our ambition to build an innovative, progressive and vibrant workplace environment for the bank.”