Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
Through its NatWest bank subsidiary, RBS is already involved in such a pilot in England with Barclays Bank and Lloyds Bank.
It is understood there are several trials currently ongoing, all of them in urban areas and Mr Stevenson has asked RBS to trial such a scheme in a rural area such as the North-east before reaching any conclusions.
In a letter to Mr McEwan, Mr Stevenson states:
“As you will be aware, various banks including RBS have closed a large number of branches in the North-east in recent years and, increasingly, one of the things I am hearing from constituents is the desire for the banks to co-operate through shared provision of premises.
“I understand . . . that none of these pilots are taking place in Scotland but the results of the pilots in England will be assessed before any decisions are reached.
“I should be grateful if you are able to update me on when you expect the reach any conclusions from the data gathered. I note also that all of the pilots are in urban areas and should be grateful if consideration could be given to a similar trial in a rural area, such as the North-east, so that the data gathered is not based entirely on urban experiences.”
“I understand . . . that none of these pilots are taking place in Scotland but the results of the pilots in England will be assessed before any decisions are reached.
“I should be grateful if you are able to update me on when you expect the reach any conclusions from the data gathered. I note also that all of the pilots are in urban areas and should be grateful if consideration could be given to a similar trial in a rural area, such as the North-east, so that the data gathered is not based entirely on urban experiences.”
Commenting on his approach, Stewart Stevenson said:
“The North of Scotland has suffered a large number of bank branch closures in recent years, with the closures affecting even large towns such as Fraserburgh, Banff and Buckie.
“Any initiative which could retain or even bring back a range of services provided by the banks themselves is worth serious consideration. It’s very interesting that there is a pilot scheme in place in some urban areas in England and there is no reason why a similar pilot scheme could not be set up to assess its viability in a rural area of Scotland, so I hope RBS will agree in principle as a first step.”
“Any initiative which could retain or even bring back a range of services provided by the banks themselves is worth serious consideration. It’s very interesting that there is a pilot scheme in place in some urban areas in England and there is no reason why a similar pilot scheme could not be set up to assess its viability in a rural area of Scotland, so I hope RBS will agree in principle as a first step.”
