Bank branch closures

[Zetec-S]

V8mate said:

I would bet that a the majority of them are down to business processes rather than consumer preference.

My local railway operator, for example, always issues refunds or delay payments by cheque. They must issue tens of thousands each year. The claim and payment process could so easily be replaced by an electronic one.

And everyone who uses a train has a smartphone, so they can moan at the operator on Twitter

Oh yes, definitely. One of our customers (a major high street retailer) still pays by cheque, so probably them and your railway operator are responsible for a good 10% of that half billion

The number issued will continue to fall (I think the peak was about 4 billion a year back in the early 90's) but even if you discount the antiquated business processes there will continue to be a demand for a long time. That 2018 date was very ambitious.

[FiF]

On the issue that it was stated cheques were going to go by 2018 etc etc and inference so people just have to suck it up. I reckon all the cheques and similar received over recent years have been from Govt agencies and such as dividend payments.

Can we think of anything else where the powers that be said "We are going to do x, and people will just have to get with the programme"?

I'll start with the notice that AM/FM transmitters would be turned off and go digital. Not even at 50% listening on digital yet, very close if you include online / apps and via the TV. Yeah yeah luddite luddite. Incidentally I missed the single Pakistan wicket falling on TMS yesterday, was in a digital swamp half a mile from the city centre, car radio motorboating away.

[dazmanultra]

I only go in to branch to do CHAPS payments, but it still tend to need to do one about every other month. Otherwise sending multiple BACS payments over several days but that can be a real pain especially if you need to do something in a hurry.

[bad company]

Visiting a branch is infinitely preferable to waiting for a call centre to answer the phone before asking sometimes impossible security questions. Lloyds once asked me how long I had the account with them, over 30 years wasn’t an accurate enough answer.

[V8mate]

bad company said:

Visiting a branch is infinitely preferable to waiting for a call centre to answer the phone before asking sometimes impossible security questions. Lloyds once asked me how long I had the account with them, over 30 years wasn’t an accurate enough answer.

Fintech banks don't ask any stupid questions - you 'chat' to them 'in-app' - the fact that you managed to get into the app is security enough.

[bugmenot]

V8mate said:

Fintech banks don't ask any stupid questions - you 'chat' to them 'in-app' - the fact that you managed to get into the app is security enough.

Yet Lloyds already do offer this service. If you call them using the feature in the app then this bypasses the need to ask security questions.

[bad company]

bugmenot said:

V8mate said:

Fintech banks don't ask any stupid questions - you 'chat' to them 'in-app' - the fact that you managed to get into the app is security enough.

Yet Lloyds already do offer this service. If you call them using the feature in the app then this bypasses the need to ask security questions.

That wouldn’t have helped with taking my mother’s death certificate, will and my id stuff. Sometimes you really do need a branch.

[p1doc]

pretty sure my recent ppi payment came by cheque from the same bank I had to pay it into lol

[condor]

With the Europe wide 'Visa' fiasco yesterday, people that relied on cards needed cash to pay for shopping and petrol. Fortunately, this was only a 24 hour problem - but I'm sure it must have affected many people.

[bad company]

condor said:

With the Europe wide 'Visa' fiasco yesterday, people that relied on cards needed cash to pay for shopping and petrol. Fortunately, this was only a 24 hour problem - but I'm sure it must have affected many people.

Bit of a blow to the ‘cashless society’ that.

[FiF]

bad company said:

condor said:

With the Europe wide 'Visa' fiasco yesterday, people that relied on cards needed cash to pay for shopping and petrol. Fortunately, this was only a 24 hour problem - but I'm sure it must have affected many people.

Bit of a blow to the ‘cashless society’ that.

Yep, there was a little snigger and thoughts about some of the posters on this thread might have been bitten.

[Craikeybaby]

condor said:

With the Europe wide 'Visa' fiasco yesterday, people that relied on cards needed cash to pay for shopping and petrol. Fortunately, this was only a 24 hour problem - but I'm sure it must have affected many people.

Yes, there was a massive queue for the cashpoint at the local retail park. The beauty of never spending any cash is that there's always some in my wallet for emergencies.

[bad company]

Craikeybaby said:

condor said:

With the Europe wide 'Visa' fiasco yesterday, people that relied on cards needed cash to pay for shopping and petrol. Fortunately, this was only a 24 hour problem - but I'm sure it must have affected many people.

Yes, there was a massive queue for the cashpoint at the local retail park. The beauty of never spending any cash is that there's always some in my wallet for emergencies.

And following the Visa fiasco we now have the BP fiasco:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44759913

[ScotHill]

bad company said:

Craikeybaby said:

condor said:

With the Europe wide 'Visa' fiasco yesterday, people that relied on cards needed cash to pay for shopping and petrol. Fortunately, this was only a 24 hour problem - but I'm sure it must have affected many people.

Yes, there was a massive queue for the cashpoint at the local retail park. The beauty of never spending any cash is that there's always some in my wallet for emergencies.

And following the Visa fiasco we now have the BP fiasco:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44759913

Neither of which have anything to do with bank branches, let alone the closure of them.

[V8mate]

bad company said:

And following the Visa fiasco we now have the BP fiasco:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44759913

There have been issues with Faster Payments across many banks today, too.

Time to start stockpiling non-perishables! ;-)

[bad company]

ScotHill said:

bad company said:

Craikeybaby said:

condor said:

With the Europe wide 'Visa' fiasco yesterday, people that relied on cards needed cash to pay for shopping and petrol. Fortunately, this was only a 24 hour problem - but I'm sure it must have affected many people.

Yes, there was a massive queue for the cashpoint at the local retail park. The beauty of never spending any cash is that there's always some in my wallet for emergencies.

And following the Visa fiasco we now have the BP fiasco:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44759913

Neither of which have anything to do with bank branches, let alone the closure of them.

Really, so the banks encouraging non cash transactions and closing branches and ATM’s where people draw cash are unrelated?

[ScotHill]

bad company said:

Really, so the banks encouraging non cash transactions and closing branches and ATM’s where people draw cash are unrelated?

The majority of people want cashless transactions - debit and credit cards are decades old and look at how contactless has taken off. I only take out money when I go to the barbers or buy fish and chips, because both of those sectors tend to be a bit backward. Branch systems are just as likely to go down as ATMs and card payments.

All of the 'anti-closure' stuff boils down to people wanting a service to be available but not wanting to pay directly for it like they do in a lot of other countries, instead wanting it to be subsidised by everyone else who rarely/never use that service.

[bad company]

ScotHill said:

The majority of people want cashless transactions - .

Do you have any evidence to back that up?

[HappySilver]

bad company said:

Really, so the banks encouraging non cash transactions and closing branches and ATM’s where people draw cash are unrelated?

But it isn’t the banks that are pushing it it is the customers who are demanding it, the bank that doesn’t provide on-line access is a dead bank. Seventy percent of customers now consider their bank as an app on their phone and never, or very rarely, venture into a branch. Yes some people do still want the personal contact, some vocal on this thread, but where do the banks draw the line? When the last customer stops using the shop they have to staff to give things away free, the last three, five, fifty, hundred?

The banks have created a relationship with the post office, 90+% of the transactions that are being carried out in branches can be done in these, this has actually slowed the closure of post offices to a trickle. So by closing branches they are saving another high street service that previously were closing at a similar rate to bank branches today. It isn’t perfect but as usage picks up the post offices should be able to open more counters etc.

Being inside a bank I was able to look at stats for my local branck when it closed, average footfall of 32 customer a week, the majority of who benefitted from free banking. Two staff sitting bored out of their heads for most of the week, it was a branch that couldn’t be single manned. Closure announced and 3500+ people signed the petition, clearly they were not all using the branch and were just against the principle of the closure. There were around three businesses using the branch, unfortunate, but as business people I’m sure they understood the economics as they surely would not have kept their shop open and staffed for just three fee paying customers a week. I don’t know the numbers but the fees those businesses were paying probably wouldn't have covered the electricity bill for the branch, let alone the other running costs and staff wages etc.

To those saying that they have to take death certificates etc. into a town centre branch, yep you did. You probably had to take them into a solicitor too. Even though you were paying the solicitor rather than getting a free service like that from the bank I bet you did not complain about having to drive to their office and question why they didn’t have a local office close to where you live?

Customer behaviour is changing, banks are responding to this. Some customers don’t like the change and prefer the old ways. The banks have tried to continue to try and support these via technology, the post office, mobile branches, community bankers etc. but this is never going to be enough. Some people wants the banks to keep their hundreds of shops giving things away free open. Well sorry, that is not economic in a competitive environment. Mutuals have more of a chance where shareholders are not pushing for a return competitive to other banks but even these are going to face the inevitable closure of branches when they have staff sitting doing nothing all day.

Finally, an interesting observation on branch closures. Banks that have closed significant numbers of branches in recent years have reported that they have not lost significant numbers of customers or market share as a result. The majority of customers are simply not impacted or bothered by those closures .

ATMs are being reduced simply because people are not taking as much cash out, many people (mainly, but not exclusively, younger) do not normally carry cash, compare this with five, ten or twenty years ago where cash was used for the majority of transactions. Economics tells us that supply is driven by demand, people are not using cash machines so they are being removed. Many locations that had multiple ATMs in the past now have just one or two as the demand is not there any more. Many of the ATMs that have gone are those that charged for withdrawals, they are simply not generating the same income as previously. Card transactions now outnumber cash transactions and that trend is continuing, ATMs (and branches) will continue to close as it becomes uneconomical to provide services/functionality that fewer people are using.

Edited by HappySilver on Monday 9th July 08:24

[Eric Mc]

Banks are pushing this too as it means they can cut staff and other premises related costs. As long as customers want and need branches, they should be there.

Banks have no loyalty or notion of service to anyone, except themselves.

Cutomers and staff can go hang.