In response to changing consumer habits driven by the advance of online services and mobile apps, substantial reductions in the provision of bank branches have been widely documented over the last decade. Such closures have economic consequences for the sustainability of local businesses and the state of local high streets and may disproportionately affect demographic groups such as the elderly, those on low incomes, and those experiencing poor public transport and digital broadband connectivity. Geographical modelling can help to examine and better understand the impacts of bank closures, inform and guide future reductions, and contribute to impact assessment exercises. Many recent studies concerned with the spatial provision of services have adopted Floating Catchment Area techniques, exploring their use in a wide range of thematic and geographical contexts, but hitherto not to retail banking. This study documents the trialling of several approaches to the implementation of variable sized catchments within FCA tools in order to address previous concerns regarding the use of a fixed size catchment in study areas that encompass a wide range of settlement types. Findings suggest considerable potential in applying these tools to the banking sector, whilst also drawing attention to current limitations in the type of data available to differentiate settlement areas and guide parameter settings. However, with the future inclusion of supply-side measures such as branch opening hours and the incorporation of multi-modal travel, FCA tools can enhance existing impact assessment exercises and provide the public with greater confidence that the implications of bank branch closures have been fully considered.

为应对在线服务和移动应用程序的进步所推动的消费者习惯的改变，在过去十年中广泛记录了银行分支机构的大幅减少。此类关闭会对当地企业的可持续性和当地大街的状况产生经济影响，并可能对老年人、低收入人群以及公共交通和数字宽带连接不良的人群等人口群体产生不成比例的影响。地理建模有助于检查和更好地了解银行关闭的影响，为未来的削减提供信息和指导，并有助于影响评估工作。许多最近关于服务空间提供的研究都采用了浮动集水区技术，探索它们在广泛的主题和地理环境中的使用，但迄今为止还没有用于零售银行业务。本研究记录了在 FCA 工具中实施可变大小集水区的几种方法的试验，以解决先前有关在包含广泛定居点类型的研究区域中使用固定大小集水区的担忧。调查结果表明，将这些工具应用于银行业具有相当大的潜力，同时也提请注意当前可用于区分结算区域和指导参数设置的数据类型的局限性。然而，随着未来供应方措施的加入，例如分行营业时间和多式联运的纳入，