The historic Natwest bank in Wimbledon Village is set to close as parent company RBS Group announced it will close a quarter of its branches and axe nearly 700 jobs.

The decision by the state-backed lender will see a total of 62 RBS Group branches and 197 Natwest outlets closed by mid-2018.

The historic Natwest bank in Wimbledon village will shut in June.

A Wimbledon Village resident who is a regular at the bank said: “The local branch of Natwest is filled with staff who know your name and you know their names.

“They take an interest in how you are and facilitate each transaction with a smile on their face. They add the personal touch and make each customer feel valued.

“Now Natwest are not only putting staff out of a job, but they are taking away a necessary amenity that I use weekly along with many other members of the community.”

RBS, still 72 per cent owned by the taxpayer, hopes to limit the number of redundancies to 680 by redeploying the remaining staff.

An RBS spokesman said: “More and more of our customers are choosing to do their everyday banking online or on mobile.

“Since 2014 the number of customers using our branches across the UK has fallen by 40 per cent and mobile transactions have increased by 73 per cent over the same period.

“Over five million customers now use our mobile banking app and one in five only bank with us digitally.”

The Morden branch is also set to close in June 2018.

Account holders will still be able to use the Wimbledon town centre branch.