More than 40 per cent of the UK's bank and building society branches have disappeared since 1989, according to a Nottingham University study.News site Finextra reported that 7500 branches have closed over the 23 years to 2012.Unlike Australia, where there were a lot of branch closures in the 1990s before a return to growth in the 2000s, the decline in the UK was maintained throughout the whole period of the study.Branches closed at a faster rate in "deprived" parts of the country - areas where the unemployment rate was above average. The least affluent third of the population bore the brunt of two-thirds of the closures.One issue raised in the study was that reduced access to banking facilities in poorer areas could make it more likely that vulnerable people would use the services of payday lenders and other high-cost providers of financial services.