Quit blaming customers for the failings of the banks

I’M OLD enough to remember the snaking queues in the College Green branch of Bank of Ireland, especially on a Friday afternoon. In those days you were not greeted by the zombie stare of a bank teller when you approached their desk.

Nor were you accosted once your foot went over the threshold by a friendly but firm staff member enquiring about the exact nature of your business. In those days customers were welcome in banks, more or less, whereas today we are just a nuisance and unless we are old, senile or brandishing a gun heaven forbid, we deserve to be turned away at the door and directed to the joys of online banking.

Bank of Ireland defends its decision to close a network of 103 branches on the grounds that noone darkens its door anymore. That’s a bit disingenuous because pandemic aside, the bank has steadily reduced customer expectations of their local bank branch and used every trick in the book to force us online.

The result is that branches, once flourishing centres of commerce, have become nothing more than soulless ATM kiosks with an occasional human being running a forlorn looking foreign exchange desk.

For those of us who don’t need the convenience of a local bank, there is just nothing about them to miss.

It’s progress, or a form of it, I suppose. But it would reflect better on the banks if they were candid about how automation is changing the face of their industry rather than pointing the finger of blame at customers for draining the lifeblood out of communities.