Changes at HSBC are not expected to result in widespread redundancies at one of its Hamilton branches, a spokeswoman for the bank said last night.

The spokeswoman said: “When the Church Street branch reopens in September we will implement a modified service offering comprising of account opening, safe custody, collections and teller services.

“All lending services will be carried out in the Harbourview branch.

“Due to this change in our service model at the branch a number of roles are changing and we are going through an internal recruitment process to fill those positions.

“It is the current expectation that the majority of the impacted employees will be redeployed within HSBC or retrained to fulfil the new roles at the Church Street location.

“Where applicable and in line with local employment practices, we always work closely with impacted employees in the event of redundancies who may seek further opportunities across other businesses and functions.”

She was speaking after Jason Hayward, the Minister of Labour, replied to a question about whether he had been in contact with the bank about reports that 20 people would soon be made redundant at the Church Street branch.

Mr Hayward said at the regular Covid-19 briefing that he had “had direct contact with the bank regarding these redundancies”.