The Yorkshire Building Society Group is to close 20 Yorkshire Building Society branches in May and 28 Norwich & Peterborough (N&P) branches from September this year.
It will maintain a high street network of 260 branches and agencies across the UK, with the Yorkshire Building Society as the sole high street brand.
The Society says it will “work” with affected customers and will contact them to outline what these proposals mean for their specific circumstances.
Mike Regnier, chief executive of the Yorkshire Building Society, said: “We remain fully committed to providing the face-to-face service that many of our members value and are planning to maintain a strong and sustainable national branch network.
“The driving forces behind the proposed branch closures are shifts in market conditions and an increasing desire among customers to transact digitally rather than on the high street. We therefore no longer believe it is the right commercial position for us to continue to maintain these 48 branches across the N&P and Yorkshire network.
“The changing landscape of the current account market means continuing to provide this service and extend it to new customers would require a significant increase in our investment in this part of the business. Although we understand the proposal may be disappointing to current account customers, it follows thorough research and assessment. We believe the level of investment required would not represent good long-term value for the wider membership.
“The Norwich & Peterborough brand has been part of Yorkshire Building Society since 2011, and inevitably, some of our colleagues and members will be disappointed by these proposals. The values of the N&P and Yorkshire brands are synonymous and we believe operating with Yorkshire Building Society as our sole high street brand would allow us to run the business more effectively and efficiently, enabling us to deliver better products and services for our members. These proposals would help us achieve that aim and further reinforce Yorkshire’s position as one of the most trusted financial services providers in the UK.”