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Bank closures have been fairly common in India recently, with RBS withdrawing their operations completely, while HSBC is closing branches in 15 cities across the country. Branch closures are not just a trend in India, in the US the number of bank branches has reduced by six percent since 2009, and is now at the lowest level in more than a decade , while in the last year alone, more than 600 bank branches were closed in the UK . The decline of the branch is being driven by increased demand for digital services, and improvements to online banking platforms. It is understood that banks need to harness the power of these digital tools to offer more personalised service and build customer engagement. But, now they need to put the customer at the heart of everything they do - designing and offering products and services around the customer need, not products and banking infrastructure. With reduced interchange fees impacting revenues and thus the ability for credit cards to offer rewards as they may have in the past, and emerging new ventures disrupting the market, banks need to change to meet customer expectations or risk reduced customer engagement and even custom.
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