A crass policy blighting our communities
Bosses should get out more and see how important branches are to towns and villages
SURELY, it can’t be beyond the wit of intelligent bankers – and extremely well paid individuals at that – to come up with a more cohesive and socially acceptable response to the decline in bank branch usage than the ruthless one currently being pursued?
A bit more TLC (tender loving care) is required as opposed to the present strategy of slash and burn – culling last banks in town at will, without giving a thought to the damage their actions cause.
Of course, all the statistics show that more people now prefer to do their banking via the internet and their smartphones.
Yet, as our three-page special report today highlights, a big slice of our society (young families, the elderly, small businesses, charities, readers of physical newspapers, people who live in vibrant towns and villages up and down the country) still want to go into a bank branch and do their banking the personal way.
The bank branch is seen by millions of people as an integral part of ‘community’ – as important as the convenience store, library, newsagent’s, pharmacy, pub and post office.
Those at the top of our country’s leading and increasingly impersonal banks (HSBC and Lloyds in particular) should not forget this irrefutable fact.
Indeed, they should get out a bit more and see with their own eyes how important the bank branches they are shutting are to communities up and down the country, especially when they are the only bank in town.
If Antonio Horta-Osorio, boss of Lloyds, were to find time in his hectic business and social diary to visit Colyton in East Devon – a delightful part of the country with the Jurassic coast within spitting distance – he would surely come away knowing that his bank’s decision to pull the plug on the last bank branch in town is a crass one. It defies logic and will do untold harm to the town.
The same could be said if he were to visit Bourne End in Buckinghamshire (his chauffeur wouldn’t have to drive him so far) where a town on the up is being undermined by Lloyds’ withdrawal, again leaving the community without a high street banking presence.
Indeed, if he visited most – not all – of the communities reeling from the shock news that their Bank of Scotland, HSBC or Lloyds branch is being shut between now and November, he would get the same response: ‘Why?’ Although the big banks are keen to state that branch closures are in response to customers’ changing banking patterns, they are not quite telling the whole truth (quelle surprise).
Over the past five years, the banks have pursued an aggressive online banking agenda. At one stage, Lloyds, for example, set targets for its sales people that required them to push an increasing number of customers online (we have the memo to prove this) – as well as sell more personal loans and packaged bank accounts.
So, bank bosses, how about a bit more honesty for a change? The increase in online banking is not entirely buyer driven. You’re pushing us down the online route.
Not all the big banks are so besotted with closing last banks in towns and villages. Nationwide – admittedly a building society, not a bank, but offering the same personal banking services as the HSBCs and Lloyds of this world – is a passionate believer in the future of branches. It has 700 countrywide (not as many as the big banking four – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland) and is currently investing £500million in the network over the next five years. While Nationwide is a big player in online banking, it understands that a majority of its customers still want a personal service that only branch staff can provide. Interestingly, this personal touch is demanded by customers of all ages.
It says that some 80 per cent of new FlexOne accounts are opened in the branch even though the current account (available to those aged 11 to 17) can be opened online by anyone aged 14 or over.
Joe Garner, Nationwide boss, believes its blend of digital banking innovation and personal service through branches is the way forward. Rather than a wilful slash and burn strategy, a recognition that branches are still the way a majority of customers want to do their banking. Intelligent bankers, are you listening?