MSPs slate RBS over plans to close 154 branches MSPs have attacked RBS over its plans to close more than 150 of its branches this year. The bank has earmarked 154 branches for the axe, with just over 100 already closed down. During a member's debate at Holyrood, MSPs said the closures meant RBS - which is 81 per cent taxpayer-owned - was reneging on its promise to customers to be "the last bank in town." The branch closures come amid a 30 per cent drop in the number of branch transactions, a 232 per cent increase in the use of internet banking, and more than 2.1 million customers using the bank's mobile app each week. Leading the debate, Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: "What we have seen, not just in my area but across Scotland, is branch after branch after branch being pulled. In April, 44 branches were earmarked for closure, from Castletown in the north to Berwickshire in the south, and branches in England and Wales too. Of these 44, 14 were the last bank in town, leaving local people and local businesses with no banking facilities. Mr Findlay, a candidate to become the party's new leader, added: "This is not the way that large companies who have received eye-watering levels of public money should be treating the people whose taxes bailed them out. RBS appears to have failed to learn a single lesson from the banking crisis. Mr Findlay's remarks were backed by SNP MSP John Mason and fellow Labour politicians Hugh Henry and John Pentland, who agreed that alternatives to branches such as online banking and mobile banking were not always sufficient. Conservative MSP Gavin Brown said RBS and other institutions must consider closures carefully, but he acknowledged the decrease in branch footfall. He said: "While I don't want to see any closures... I think we do have to listen to what is happening out there on the ground. I don't think it is right to say these organisations ignore their customers, they have to follow the trends of what their customers are doing. Enterprise Minister Fergus Ewing said the Scottish Government "shares and understands" concerns over branch closures, as he pledged to raise members" issues with RBS bosses. He said changes in the way customers do their banking meant that "difficult decisions" have to be made. "I am strongly of the view that the Royal Bank must consider the interests of their customers, the community and their staff in all of these matters and we take that very seriously," he said. Summing up: Banks still don't understand customers RBS sets aside £400m for rate rigging claims