The oversupply of Lloyds, Natwest, HSBC and Barclays branches on the High Street, not to mention the plethora of building societies, suggests we still prefer chatting with tellers over logging onto the internet to pay bills, check account balances and deposit funds.

Yet slowly but surely, the internet is starting to make its mark on the sector as more people move their banking online. Lloyds is to shut up to 400 branches as part of its integration of HBOS. Its rivals are likely to follow suit.