Nalini Dave is a 70-year old resident of Rayner's Lane who has her bank accounts in NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland. Although, she knew online banking once upon a time, she is neither confident nor able to retain the navigation process at the online portal. So, she prefers to personally go to the bank branch which is a good half an hour walking distance from her house.
“At least there are people who will be able to guide me whenever I am stuck and it also helps that they speak to me in my language,” she said.
But Nalini is still lucky in a way that she has a bank branch in her locality which is just four bus stops from her house. The same cannot be said for Mr. Kantilal Pabari, a disabled citizen from Wealdstone, who holds his account with NatWest and Llyods Bank.
“I'm computer literate but I'm not comfortable with online banking system,” said Mr. Pabari.
Disabled and displacements?
Walking with a limp, Mr. Pabari lives with his daughter, who helps him in his transactions on an everyday basis. He withdraws cash from different ATM slots, but has to travel four stops down his house to Harrow Central at least three to four times a month for deposits and other activities and even his pension gets credited to his bank account.
“I don't like the machine service. I prefer counter service because I'm retired and I don't want to learn new things at this age. I want to relax and at the counter at least I can enquire and consult with the staff. Who do I ask when I am using the machine?” he asked.
This comes at a time when Santander has announced that it will close 140 branches in the UK. The branches involved include those that are not visited frequently and are in close proximity to another branch. Following the closures by the end of the year, Santander will retain a network of 614 branches with its customers also providing the option to bank using the more than 11,000 Post Office sites across the UK. Additionally, the funds raised by these banks after selling off their properties can be utilised elsewhere in the business. But, Reshma Patel is concerned about her mother who lives alone in Leicester.
“Santander has announced that their branch is supposed to close down over there as well. But I haven't told my mother about it because I know she will be very worried,” said Reshma.
Digital only banks but language barriers?
Over the past three years the number of transactions carried out at Santander branches fell by 23%, while transactions online and on mobile phones soared by 99%.
Following the digital trend lenders such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are also closing stores to deal with customers' changing banking habits. In addition to meeting with the challenges posed from new digital only banks such as Starling Bank and Monzo, these banks are also burdened with the maintenance costs that are incurred in running physical branches. A report published last year by UK Finance claimed that 13% more transactions were done through online banking apps than the previous year.
“I think there is not much awareness in the Asian community with respect to classes being provided by the Government, colleges and sometimes perhaps even community centres over computer literacy and online banking” said Ramji Chauhan, councillor for Harrow Weald.
However, there are hardly any classes being run in ethnic minority languages for the old people who are not fluent in English language to navigate through the technical terms of online banking. The underground Tube services have automated machines for recharging Oyster cards wherein the language varies from English, French, Gujarati and even Tamil. This helps not only the old people but also those minorities who are visiting the UK (married adults who are on spousal visa, low-skilled labourers among others) and are not well-versed with the country's language. While some online banking portals offer French as an alternative to English, the translation languages could be extended to accommodate other regional languages as well.
Santander has also announced that it will spend £55 million refurbishing 100 branches over the next two years in order to "focus on personal service, convenience and community engagement".
Susan Allen, head of retail and business banking at Santander, said: "The way our customers are choosing to bank with us has changed dramatically in recent years, with more and more customers using online and mobile channels”
Banks and building societies had 20,583 branches in 1988 according to parliamentary records, studies indicate that the figure has dwindled to a mere 7,586 branches.
