Can’t find a local bank branch? Just follow the van ...
A day on the trail of the ‘bank on wheels’ being hailed as the saviour of scores of communities
THE banking landscape is changing dramatically, with many branches across Britain facing the axe. Mobile bank vans are being hailed as a saviour for communities that have lost their last high street bank. TOBY WALNE visits the valleys of South Wales to see if the future for many customers is a bank on wheels.
8:30am
SWANSEA AND CEFN DRUM
THE day starts with a guided tour of a new high-tech bank van. Painted in NatWest purple with go-faster red logos, it proclaims itself as being a ‘banc ar yr heol’ – Welsh for a ‘bank on wheels’ – and sports dragon motifs.
This is one of five new £120,000 vehicles being introduced by NatWest’s parent company Royal Bank of Scotland to add to a fleet of 19 travelling banks.
Fifteen of these are RBS-branded and based in Scotland while four are run by NatWest and serve parts of Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria and South Wales. In total they travel 8,000 miles a week and make 425 stops at small towns, villages and isolated communities.
The Welsh bank on wheels is being trialled on an existing mobile banking route near Swansea but is expected to be used on a new one in mid-Wales this autumn.
Two new vans will be RBS-branded and tour Scotland while plans for the last two vans have yet to be decided.
Mobile bank manager Pat Bevan, 50, proudly shows off her new vehicle – but prefers to call it a ‘souped-up Herbie’ – after the star of the Disney Lovebug films – rather than a bank on wheels.
She says: ‘My Herbie has a soul and talks to me. He never lets us down and is always eager to serve customers in communities needing a bank.’
Pat, who is accompanied by customer services officer Helen Banfield, 49, says an array of gadgets installed in the roomy interior make the van fit for 21st Century demands. They include a satellite dish for internet reception and an iPad and a PC for those who want to go online.
It is a far cry from the first mobile bank branch – an adapted Second World War US Studebaker first used in 1946 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. This was provided by National Bank of Scotland – a forerunner of RBS – and served isolated crofters weaving tweed for a living.
Our modern version winds its way through the valleys of Cefn Drum, north of Swansea, before making its first banking stop of the morning.
10:00am
PONTARDDULAIS
THE English translation of Pontarddulais is ‘Bridge on the Dulais’ – Dulais means black stream and refers to local coal.
This town of 15,000 is ten miles north-west of Swansea and home to some of the finest voices in Wales. The Pontarddulais Male Choir has won the national Eisteddfod a record 15 times and sang with Pink Floyd in the film The Wall.
Waiting for the bank to arrive for its one-hour stop-off at a supermarket car park is customer Yvonne Haley, 59.
Yvonne, a transport manager, says: ‘Sadly, my husband Robert is tone deaf – the choir is better off without him. I use the van because of the personal touch. Despite the new fancy gadgets, what I like is someone to talk to.’
Local car salesman Tom Savage, 23, has nothing but praise for the staff. ‘I come to bank cheques and it saves a drive into town that would take an hour out of my working day. I love the friendly smiles that greet you as you enter the van,’ he says.
Pat offers more than banking for those in need – she even deliv- ers milk and bread for those unable to get out in bad weather. Occasionally, she has popped round to bedridden customers to bring them food, tobacco and a newspaper.
She says: ‘If I don’t see a regular customer for a couple of weeks then I make a house call just to check everything is okay. It’s part of serving the community.’
11:30am
GORSEINON
JUST behind the bustling high street of this small town is a quiet car park that’s perfect for the mobile bank.
This is not an isolated community in desperate need of a bank – Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds all have branches. It is a thriving town that has reinvented itself following the closure of the nearby steelworks in the 1990s.
Retired safety officer Peter James, 65, arrives on his bike to take advantage of the van’s hourlong visit. ‘I find the mobile bank
so convenient. There are no queues or problems finding somewhere to park,’ he says.
‘My only gripe is that they cannot do everything they can in a branch, like providing me with a bank statement.’
Despite this concern, the bank on wheels is geared up to offer most of the financial services available in a bricks-and-mortar branch – including dealing with business customers. It handles cash withdrawals, deposits, current and savings accounts plus bill payments.
Peter accepts the travelling bank is more of a luxury than a necessity in Gorseinon. Indeed, just ten of the 18 stop-offs during the week are for communities where there is no high street bank presence.
Motorcycle shop owner Lynette Ballard, 52, says: ‘A couple of years ago, NatWest closed a branch in nearby Fforestfach, just three miles down the road. The next nearest NatWest is about ten miles away in Llansamlet. Changing to another bank would be a real hassle. It is not ideal but this van represents the cost-cutting future of banking.’
RBS announced last month it is axeing 44 high street branches and 14 of these are ‘the last bank in town’ – despite making a pledge four years ago not to close such vital last branches. Although a van can offer a key service to an abandoned community, it provides great cost savings for a bank.
1:30pm
FFORESTFACH
LOOKING through the metal fencing behind which ‘Herbie’ sits is an empty shell of a building that was previously the NatWest branch.
It used to be open 10am to 3pm five days a week until it shut its doors a couple of years ago. The mobile van stays in Fforestfach just 45 minutes. But for David Morgan Lloyd, 57, that brief time is a godsend as he struggles to walk because he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and has to drive to the van, which is parked around the corner from his home.
David stays in his car while assistant Helen comes out to serve him. He says: ‘Rather than going to the bank having the bank come to me is a real lifesaver. I require an oxygen tank at home and I get funding for this which I then deposit when the van arrives. This mobile bank is my saviour.’
Half a dozen people use the service in Fforestfach. Yet on the industrial estate where the NatWest vehicle is parked, Keith Usher, 39, is one of many who does not take advantage. The car mechanic says: ‘I have often seen the van parked up and wondered what it was doing. As our garage uses Lloyds Bank it is no good to us. I rarely visit a bank – only to drop in an occasional cheque – and I do my banking online. That is the future, not a bank on wheels.’
NatWest does not disagree with Keith’s view of the banking future. It says that use of high street branches has fallen 30 per cent since 2010 as more customers opt to go online rather than queuing at a branch counter or a van.
3:00pm
THE MUMBLES
THE VAN heads back to base via the western edge of Swansea Bay and unspoilt stretches of golden sands and beaches.
The van does not stop off here as the thriving resort is well served by an existing branch of NatWest – for now at least.
The sight of the van is a great lift for those communities who have lost bank branches or who struggle without them. But unfortunately for those already well catered for with a high street branch – such as in the Mumbles – a mobile outlet passing through can appear an ill-omen.
For communities who have lost their high street bank, a mobile bank represents a welcome compromise but it is not as good as having a branch that is part of the fabric of the community.
The van’s presence in and around Swansea raises the fear of yet more bank closures.