NatWest has announced the closure of two of branches in Birmingham.

The high street bank will shut its branch in Washwood Heath on September 28 as a result of a sharp decline in the number of people using it.

The NatWest branch in Wylde Green, near Sutton Coldfield, will now remain closed on a permanent basis after it shut following a ram raid at the bank in December.

A statement from NatWest said: "The way people choose to bank with us has changed radically over the last few years.

"Between 2010 and 2015, mobile and online transactions have increased by over 400 per cent and mobile transactions alone have increased by 1,350 per cent.

"Since 2011, we have seen the number of transactions in the Washwood Heath branch decline by 39 per cent.

"These customers are actively choosing to bank in different ways, with 68.5 per cent choosing to use our digital banking options.

"Since 2011, we have seen the number of transactions in the Sutton Coldfield Wylde Green branch decline by 27 per cent, with 69.2 per cent of customers choosing to use our digital banking options.

"We are communicating with our customers affected by the closure and pro-actively contacting vulnerable and regular branch customers.

"We have listened closely to feedback from local communities and have extended the time between announcing our decision and the branch closure to six months.

"This has been done in order to ensure our customers have time to consider the right banking options for them."

The move is part of a wider plans by Royal Bank of Scotland which owns NatWest.

The group is planning to axe 158 branches, most of which are NatWest outlets, with the loss of up to 362 jobs.

About 770 staff will be affected by the closures with around 300 of those moved to other jobs.

It leaves up to 470 staff at risk of redundancy but RBS said the maximum number that would be leaving was 362.

The company has created a new team called NatWest TechXperts which is dedicated to supporting customers wishing to learn more about digital banking.