Pickering Gets new Building Society Branch

Newcastle Building Society is bucking the bank closure trend and has opened an innovative new branch in Pickering.

Newcastle Building Society’s new branch in Pickering opened its doors on Monday, bucking the national trend of branch closures and restoring essential banking services to residents in a town abandoned by the high street banks.

The firm say that the new branch on Pickering’s Market Place, will secure the future of local financial services and advice in the North Yorkshire town. The Society’s 32nd branch marks the latest phase in a multi-year, multi-million-pound investment into high streets and communities in the region.

As well as a full range of branch services and a team of experts available to talk to face to face, Newcastle Building Society is pioneering the use of a multi-bank kiosk in its new Pickering location.

OneBanx, enables personal and small business customers to withdraw money and make cash deposits into their own bank account. The kiosk is expected to become a lifeline for residents, visitors, and businesses in the town who continue to use cash and rely on convenient access to their account. Anyone can go into the branch and make use of the OneBanx kiosk, whether or not they are customers of Newcastle Building Society.

The new branch comes just months after news of the closure of the last bank branch in Pickering, with Barclays citing falling customer usage and increased preference for digital banking behind its decision to close in January 2025. In contrast, Newcastle Building Society says it is seeing branch savings balances grow at rate more than double the market average, with a growth of 7.5% in branches compared to a rest of market average of 2.8% across all channels.

The Society argues that by challenging industry norms, and responding to the needs of its customers and communities, people are embracing businesses who remain committed to local financial services in the face of bank branch closures.

Despite the planned closure of all high street bank branches in Pickering, it is not currently being considered for a Banking Hub,

The new branch expands the Society’s presence in Pickering, which started in 2019 when it acquired a financial advice-only office in the town. The current financial advice team will move from its existing office on Champley’s Mews to the new branch on Market Place.   

Andrew Haigh, chief executive officer at Newcastle Building Society said:

“We’re delighted to open our new Pickering branch, extending our presence in the town where we’ve maintained a financial advice office for a number of years, and building on our commitment to face-to-face financial services and advice. Bank branch closures are blighting our communities, putting more and more people at risk of financial exclusion and removing choice in how they manage their money.

“As a mutual, we’ll continue to focus on being available in the way our members and communities need us. As well as investing in our online services, this means investing heavily in our branch network – providing customers with choice in how they manage their finances, by growing and extending our presence in the communities we serve. And we’re seeing the evidence that this is what our communities want as people vote with their feet and balances and customer numbers grow.”

“We believe high streets are always better with branches, helping to create value in the community beyond our products and services, and the fantastic branch team are already actively engaging with the people and communities of Pickering and beyond.”

Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton, said

“I am thrilled that Newcastle Building Society has now confirmed that their Pickering branch is now open. I met with Newcastle Building Society earlier this year who currently have a financial advice centre in the town and the arrival of the new full-service branch will mean access to financial services, cash and deposits for my constituents in Pickering.”

Javed Anjum, CEO of OneBanx said

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Newcastle Building Society. As the original provider of multi-bank, cash transaction services in the UK since 2020, and having already powered substantial volumes of cash for 000’s of UK consumers and businesses, OneBanx supports and bridges the gap between customers who rely on branches for cash transactions merged with convenience of digital banking, and we are constantly innovating to meet the growing needs of UK financial institutions.”

Since 2015, more than 6,000 bank branches have closed across the UK, with residents and businesses across North Yorkshire feeling its serious impacts, and customers forced to travel miles to get to their nearest branch, making it harder for people to manage their money.

Despite a national trend of bank branch closures, Newcastle Building Society says it remains "committed to face-to-face services" and over recent years has opened branches in several new locations by sharing space with community organisations and helping to restore access to cash and financial services in places where banks have left town.

Pickering branch is the Society’s 32nd branch, in a network covering the North East, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. Newcastle Building Society’s ongoing programme of branch investment includes unique community partnership branches located in North Shields, Knaresborough, Hawes, Yarm, and Wooler. Each of these community branches share space with other charities or vital local services such as libraries, tourist information, and community policing.