CLYDESDALE Bank’s presence on the Scottish high street is to contract further after its owner swung the axe on five more branches, raising the spectre of redundancies at the Glasgow-based institution.

Bank owner CYBG has just announced that the Clydesdale branches in Arbroath, Largs, Brora, St Andrews and in Glasgow’s Shettleston are to shut, with the closure process beginning in August.

With the exception of Glasgow, the closures mean Clydesdale will ultimately no longer have a branch presence in the towns affected.

CYBG, which last year sealed a merger with Virgin Money, said it would strive to find roles for staff affected in other branches or elsewhere within the bank.

But it said a “small number of colleagues will be at risk of redundancy”, with a spokeswoman putting that number at 25.

The closures will leave CYBG with a network of 62 branches across Scotland.

The bank said the move has been made in response to falling footfall at the branches involved.