Jobs saved following Yorkshire Building Society closures programme

The firm is launching branches in market towns across Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and the Midlands, which are being run by the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (N&P).

It comes after Yorkshire Building Society announced in January that it would shut 48 sites and call time on the N&P brand after 157 years.

Banks and building societies have made cost savings by rolling back their branch network as some customers prefer to use online banking services.

David Marlow, chief executive of Nottingham Building Society, said he hopes to set up even more branches in market towns.

He said: “Around 26% of the country’s bank branches have closed over the past five years, and as this trend continues our proposition becomes even more appealing and our business gets stronger.

“Branch closures are leading to more people finding it difficult to access face-to-face advice and service when it comes to dealing with key financial issues in their lives.

“This is particularly true in market towns, where much of our focus is placed. Sadly there are now as many as 1,500 towns in the UK that used to have branches but no longer do.”

The new branches will be based in Spalding, Stamford, Huntingdon, Bourne, Thetford, Dereham and Fakenham. It will bring Nottingham Building Society’s total branch network to 67.