THREE Dorset branches of Santander will close early on Saturdays from July in response to ‘long-term trends in customer behaviour’.

The branches in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch will operate a half day service from July 18.

The opening hours will change from 9.30am to 4pm to 9.30am to 12.30pm.

The bank said face-to-face appointments can still be made at these branches until 4pm.

More than 300 Santander branches across the country will move to the new opening hours.

The move is part of a wider shake-up of changes to opening hours being introduced by the bank from July 18.

There will be no branch closures as part of the changes, Santander said, adding that all of its 450 sites will remain open every weekday.

Richard Owen, head of branches at Santander, said: “These changes will enable us to maintain our existing branch network while providing significant additional capacity to help customers who want to talk to us by phone.”

Santander said it will be writing to regular branch customers to explain the new opening hours and to offer support.

The bank said the number of customers using its branches fell by a third over the two years before the coronavirus pandemic, and a further 50 per cent in 2020 and 12 per cent in 2021.