Barclays goes big on helping elderly with online banking as branches close

Barclays is attempting to discourage elderly customers from visiting bank branches by launching new “Oapfriendly” card readers for online banking.

The giant devices, which are twice the size of normal readers, have been designed to help the 5 million people in the UK who suffer from sight loss or dexterity issues to use online banking more easily.

As local bank branches continue to shut down, elderly people in rural locations are left with no easy way of doing day-to-day banking.

Data shows that already this year, some 423 bank and building society branches have either been axed or put on notice of closure. Over the past two years, 1,046 branches have been shut by the country’s big high street banks.

Yesterday Halifax’s managing director, Russell Galley, criticised Barclays’ technological approach, saying: “They have chosen a model that is very high on technology and very low on people. That is not a model I would deploy with Halifax, I believe in high on technology and high on people. And I think that more down-to-earth personality is really critical for our success.”

Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays UK, said: “This new development is yet another example of how we are responding to the needs of our customers.”