Nationwide Building Society is poised to claim the title of Britain's largest branch network from next month, surpassing Lloyds Banking Group for the first time.
The building society's 696 branches will become the country's most extensive high street presence once Lloyds completes a fresh wave of closures across its portfolio.
Lloyds Bank is shutting 95 sites, encompassing Halifax and Bank of Scotland locations alongside its main brand, leaving the banking group with 610 branches by March next year.
Dame Debbie Crosbie, the building society's chief executive, said the building society has witnessed growing popularity at its branches.
Nationwide will surpass Nationwide when it comes to the number of bank branches
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She said: "So I suppose, in some regards, I'm not surprised that there's a lot of our competitors thinking very carefully about strategy.
"We see huge success in our branch network and continue to see it, so perhaps the tide is turning and we will certainly continue to invest in our branches."
The chief executive indicated that Nationwide has no immediate intentions to open additional sites but will keep the matter under review.
As part of its promise to customers, the building society has committed to maintaining its 605 Nationwide branches and 91 Virgin Money locations until at least 2030.
Bank branch closures are continuing at an 'alarming rate', according to Which? | GETTY LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Lloyds Banking Group consists of Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland | GETTY Current account openings through Nationwide's branch network rose by 20 per cent over the past year, underscoring the renewed appetite for in-person banking services.
The building society is responding to customer demand by extending opening hours at numerous locations, with particular interest in Saturday availability and longer weekday access.
Dame Debbie highlighted that customers increasingly value direct human interaction, especially when dealing with sensitive matters.
She said: "What we are finding is that more and more people really value face-to-face, human contact, particularly for areas like fraud, bereavement and power of attorney."
Nationwide's chief executive praised the building society's progress
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Nationwide also revealed its fourth Fairer Share payment, with approximately 4.4 million members set to receive £100 in June.
The profit-sharing initiative, launched in 2023, will have distributed around £1.5billion to members once this latest payment is made.
As a mutual organisation owned by its members rather than external shareholders, Nationwide aims to continue the annual payments subject to the group's financial performance.
The building society reported pre-tax profits of £1.49billion for the year ending March, down from £2.3billion the previous year, though the earlier figure had been boosted by a one-off gain from the Virgin Money acquisition.