According to an anonymous industry source the move will be announced on 22 March and will inevitably lead to large-scale redundancies.
The fate of the lender’s brokerage arm, Central Mortgage Services (CMS), remains unclear though this operation is widely seen as valuable asset within the group.
Mike Gutsell, head of public relations at Bristol & West, said: “All I can say is that an announcement is to be made on 22 March. The branch network is being reviewed and a variety of options could come from that.”
He admitted that any significant branch closures would lead to redundancies.
On the issues ofCentral Mortgage Services Gutsell said: “As far as I am aware CMS is not part of the review.”
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at Charcol, commented: “There has been speculation about branch closures at Bristol & West for a while now.
“ In pure economic terms a lot of branches are liabilities but organisations need to balance any closures with criticism of their brands that inevitably follows such decisions.
“This would be easier for BoI to justify because ultimately it is beholden to its shareholders, unlike mutuals.”
He said that any branch closures could benefit brokers as the group would have to focus on intermediaries to secure distribution.
