Regular readers of this column will be aware of exactly how low an opinion I hold of the service that the High Street banks offer to their business and personal customers. OK, we can’t keep harking back to the ‘good old days’ when there were bank branches on every street corner. But I think we’re entitled to a little more consideration than we’re currently getting.

The banks will tell you that it’s all in the name of efficiency, which is their wording for ‘we need to make a fortune for our shareholders’. There is no let-up in their approach, with announcements in recent months from all the major banks of literally hundreds more closures this year.

There are, however, just the first signs that the banks are beginning to listen to their critics. Last year Barclays opened its first pop-up branch in St. Austell in Cornwall. The pop-up was open for old-fashioned banking hours of 9.30am-3.30pm to allow you to deposit and withdraw cash, as well as speak to a member of staff. They say there will be more to follow in 2023 but haven’t published any details.

Are pop-up banks the way forward?

TSB is about to follow suit with a pop-up in a shopping centre in north London. The bank tells us that the cost to set up a pod is only one-sixth of the weekly running costs associated with a conventional ‘High Street’ branch, so is this the way forward for allowing the public and local businesses to carry out basic banking transactions? I know we’re all being obliged to embrace the digital age and to accept the idea of moving towards a cashless society, but that’s not yet for everyone.

We are also seeing a few shared branches appearing on Post Office premises. Staff from different banks set up on separate days to provide the same level of services as we are seeing in the pop-ups. We were promised a wide spread of shared branches across the country but to date only four have sprung up, half of them as part of the original pilot scheme.

There’s no evidence of any of these new set-ups appearing in the county; we can but hope. They are no replacement for full branches, but they are better than nothing, which seems to be the alternative.