Commercial banks are failing their elderly customers with their shift to technology-led services, a community-based NGO has warned, with a growing number of senior citizens essentially becoming unbanked.
The St Jean Antide Foundation on Wednesday listed a number of problems that elderly people are facing when trying to access modern-day banking services – from the reliance on ATM withdrawals to extremely long queues at physical bank branches.
“Many elderly people are choosing not to deposit money at the bank,” the foundation said. “And when we finally convince them to do so, they face even more problems as the banks demand proof of where the money, which they will have been saving for a long time, comes from.”
Local commercial banks have been gradually winding down their physical high street presence over the past years, shutting down multiple branches or opting not to reopen branches that were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, banks are directing clients to withdraw and deposit money through their network of ATMS and encouraging them to use online banking for other services. But this leaves senior citizens short-changed, the St Jean Antide Foundation believes.
Many elderly people do not know how to use computers or smartphones, and do not trust online services like mobile banking.
“Even when we try and teach them, it flusters them,” the NGO said.
Excessively long queues at physical bank branches mean many senior citizens find themselves waiting for long periods of time on pavements outside branches.
And even when they try to call their banks for help, they are thrown off by recorded automated messages that require them to press an interminable number of buttons to get served.Many end up confused and not sure what button to press, and end up with the phone call hanging up on them.
Many senior citizens do not want to apply for a debit card to use at ATMs, while others are just too frail or unwell to visit ATMs and end up giving their bank card and PIN to a third party with instructions to withdraw money for them, the Foundation added.
“Banks must acknowledge that the technological systems they have created are leading to the financial abuse of vulnerable elderly citizens,” it said. “We see the problem growing. Something must be done about this soon.”