Long march to banking by mobile

A BIG thank you to the bank branch employee who contacted me last week, appalled at the way she and her colleagues are being bullied into steering customers away from using counter services.

Although she would not reveal the name of her bank or branch (for obvious reasons), everything she said rings true: tills being decommissioned; customers encouraged to use ATMs, deposit machines or ring a phone number to get a query answered; and staff reprimanded if they do not toe the line.

‘This new policy is hard to accept, especially given that most customers are elderly,’ she adds.

Sadly, high street banking, as we know it, is drawing to an end. More than 1,100 bank branches have shut (or put on notice of closure) since last year – and plenty more will be put on death row.

As a result, banks are shedding staff (Barclays has just announced plans to axe 450) and shredding customer passbooks (Lloyds).

While banking hubs, which all bank customers can use, will fill some of the gaps left by closures, we are being pushed into a world where mobile phone banking rules.