The Co-operative Bank is to close two branches in Kent with the loss of 10 jobs.

Customers at Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks will have to travel to Chatham and Dartford respectively to meet staff.

The move is part of a cost-cutting measure by the Co-operative, as it tries to create a “smaller, sustainable bank” after a £1.5 billion black hole was discovered in its accounts in 2013.

Five staff will lose their jobs in the two Kent branches, with Sevenoaks due to close on Monday, May 16, and Tunbridge Wells two days later.

Liam Coleman, director of retail and commercial banking at the Co-operative Bank said: “These decisions are never easy but continuing to reduce our costs is necessary as we seek to restructure and modernise the bank.

“Unfortunately, this includes closing branches where the number of transactions has declined significantly, meaning it is no longer sustainable.

“These decisions are never easy but continuing to reduce our costs is necessary as we seek to restructure and modernise the bank..." - Liam Coleman, Co-operative Bank

“Although, like all banks, we will need to keep our branch network under review as the switch to digital increases, this is the last stage of significant branch closures as part of the bank’s transformation.”

The Co-operative Bank lost nearly 40,000 current account customers in the first half of 2014 following its accounting scandal, which saw its then chairman Paul Flowers resign.

After years of losses, the bank is not expected to make a full-year profit until 2017 at the earliest.

Mr Coleman added: “We have sought to keep the impact on our customers to a minimum and are writing to affected customers giving them advance notice about these changes and the alternative options available to them.

“Alongside online and mobile banking facilities, all closing branches are within three miles of a Post Office branch where customers can undertake most day to day transactions, and in many cases much closer.”