As regular readers of this column will be aware, Money Matters has been a critic of the way the High Street banks have treated their customers for the last decade or more. Nationwide regularly advertises on our television screens its commitment to keeping branches open, and I hope that is sustainable for them in the long-term and that they won’t be obliged to take the same direction as all the other High Street banks. Good on them for this approach.

The last decade has seen a number of smaller organisations join the fray. Metro Bank had a full banking licence and a plan to open branches across the country. Interestingly, they now have a ‘turnaround specialist’ at the helm, someone who is adept at helping struggling businesses. He has already announced a move away from new retail outlets, but is at least promising to open in places that might help business customers. Not a bad move on the face of it, although I’ve no idea what his detailed business plan says.

None of the smaller banks can compete with the ‘big four’

So how are the other smaller players doing? Tesco Bank has been taken over by Barclays and Sainsbury’s by Nat West; so much for the supermarket offerings then. Virgin Money has followed suit, linking up with Nationwide, and Co-op Bank is well on its way to becoming part of the Coventry Building Society. None of them could compete with the ‘big four’, particularly in terms of investment in IT and, with AI becoming even more influential, maybe they have got out before anything worse happened.

What about the digital start-ups? Monzo, Revolut and Starling are probably the three best known. But, until recently, none of them had a full banking licence, significantly limiting what they could offer as products and services. It will almost certainly have passed you by, but just over a month ago, after three and a half years of arguing with the banking regulator, Revolut was granted a UK banking licence, enabling it to offer a full range of services and compete fully with the established names. Can it really? Will it want to? According to its founder, it has big ambitions.

Maybe it will be the start of a banking ‘Revolut’ion. It’s going to be interesting to watch.