Royal Bank of Scotland is closing 44 branches in the UK. Customers have been told about the closures – across the UK from Scotland to the south coast of England – and 14 of them are ‘the last branch in town.. There has been no public announcement. Banks in the UK have been pledging not to be last to pull out of local communities since the furore caused by Barclays a decade ago, when it closed 171 branches on one day. The closures come as the new chief executive of RBS, Ross McEwan, attempts to haul the 81% taxpayer-owned back into the black after reporting losses of more than £8bn for last year.