IF like me you’ve been affected by the recent NatWest service cuts to branches in Montgomeryshire, then I’m sure you were equally disappointed on June 21 when the new opening hours arrived. I’m really pleased that the County Times has recognised the impact of these changes by launching a campaign today asking for your views on banks and financial services.
The County Times broadband campaign was fantastic and it may have taken some time, but this summer the new Welsh Government Broadband Support Scheme will be a great help for rural areas.
Similarly, I will take the information we gather from this banks campaign to the Minister and I hope that together we can identify alternatives to these cuts and closures that will support our rural communities.
Despite a strong campaign against the service cuts at our Natwest branches, it seems that far off bureaucrats are determined to a impose top-down, one size fits all solution of closing local facilities, ignoring the individual needs and challenges of rural areas.
This rationalisation and centralisation of bank branches is symbolic of a wider systematic decline within our rural communities that we have become victim to in recent years, pushing services further away from those who need them most and disadvantaging the elderly and vulnerable, or those reliant on public transport with no alternatives.
In the current economic climate where customers and businesses are tightening the purse strings, the economics of providing local services will inevitably be challenging, but we must find sustainable alternatives to cuts and closures, or else other local businesses will be forced to move their trade, lock stock and barrel out of the community.
In Montgomeryshire the cuts by NatWest are already impacting on local shops through a downturn in trade with people going to town only on days when the bank is open, or travelling further afield to visit the bank and do their weekly shop.
The excellent ‘Campaign for Community Banking Services’ has proposed some innovative solutions to bank closures based on shared banking using a model that could be applied to other services.
The first tier of their solution is a shared banking franchise which could sit alongside an existing post office franchise in small, rural communities.
The second tier is a community bank, involving a stand-alone transactional service on behalf of all major banks, supplemented with a credit union or general financial or debt advice where suitable, with space for interviews or surgeries by individual banks. The third tier is banking centres, suitable for larger communities, based on the concept of airports or fashion concessions in department stores, where services are outsourced. Management of counters, cash and deposit machines and interview rooms would be the outsourcer’s responsibility, as would branch security, with service desks manned by individual banks.
By working with communities and government, banks have a golden opportunity to reverse the disgraceful legacy of blunders and bonuses. Shared overheads and responsibilities could potentially save millions in branch operating costs, whilst at the same time maintaining a presence for individual banks within a community, without the brand damage associated with closing banks.
There are solutions available and in this new financial and political climate, the government in Wales and Westminster must work in coalition with the banking sector to explore these innovative options for safeguarding high street banking for those in need, with sustainable models that could be the future for rural communities. I hope you will take part in the County Times campaign, so that the voices of Montgomeryshire are definitely heard.