by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Kent Reliance Banking Services is opening a new branch in Maidstone and seeking outlets across the county as it shuts its new West Country operation.

The former building society has agreed terms on the old Monsoon shop at the entrance to Royal Star Arcade.

The branch will be branded in the new KRBS style and open at the end of June or early July. The existing outlet in King Street will close at the same time.

The bank, which is now owned by a mutual Kent Reliance Provident Society and J C Flowers, a private equity investment group that injected £50m into the 150-year old institution, recently opened a new-style branch in Strood.

Jeremy Wood, interim chief executive, wants to see more branches across Kent.

"It's important to have a strong presence in our heartland and good-quality premises is what we are looking for.

"There are some areas where we are not represented well enough or not represented at all.

"This is a Kent organisation and ought to be well represented in the county which I don't think it is at the moment."

Meanwhile, the business has shut its agency network in the West Country after only a few months.

Mr Wood said the six outlets at Honiton, (Devon), Plymstock (Plymouth), Crewkerne (Somerset), Thornbury and Brislington (Bristol) and Kingsbridge, Devon, had not performed as the organisation had hoped.

"There has been some difficulty between us and the company running the agencies," he said.