How older savers are being let down by the banks

OLDEr bank customers face barriers to getting their cash and must be treated better, a City watchdog said.

Over-55s can be discriminated against or miss out on help and offers if they are not online, the Financial Conduct Authority report found.

Problems include branch closures cutting off older customers or making them take long trips.

Bank and insurance firms’ older customers told the FCA that they resented confusing jargon, too many options when trying to buy products and being too old to take out a mortgage or an insurance policy.

The FCA is considering an age-discrimination ban and a new ‘duty of care’. Providers needed to do more to support the growing ageing population and ensure they did not only design products for a ‘typical’ customer, it said.

Acting chief executive Tracey McDermott said she wanted to help remove ‘barriers’ preventing older people from effectively managing their finances.

Linda Woodall, an FCA director leading the inquiry, said older people could find it ‘difficult to navigate the proliferation of choice’. Poor health or bereavements meant they could become vulnerable to fraud or make poor decisions, she added.

The FCA called on a range of experts for their views. In its Ageing Population paper, Sue Lewis, of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, said older

‘Banks are withdrawing

high street presence’

people preferred to speak to bank staff face-to-face. She said: ‘This means they can struggle in a world where online services are becoming the norm, and banks are withdrawing their high street presence.’

Older people were likely to be discriminated against owing to their age, she added. And she warned there was a high risk of pension mis-selling in the wake of new freedoms allowing over-55s greater flexibility over their plans.

Jane Vass, of Age UK, said most people lived with at least one chronic health problem from their late 70s. One woman with arthritis in her hands was unable to pull her bank card out of her local ATM.

In the past year, 650 bank branches have closed, up nearly 30 per cent on the previous year, while just one in three over-75s have recently used the internet, the Campaign for Community Banking and Age UK says.

But banks were using technology including fingerprint recognition and even wristbands measuring heart signals to cut out the need to remember passwords.

Eric Leenders, of the British Bankers’ Association, said there were 2.3million online banking customers over 70, including 600,000 over 80, while 20,000 over-80s used smartphone banking apps.

The FCA is expected to announce its conclusions in summer next year.