News that the Taradale branch of BNZ bank is set to close later this month due to low foot fall is likely to be a blow for some sections of the older population, Age Concern says.

The Napier suburb also lost its ASB branch in 2020. Age Concern Napier manager Morag Hill said Taradale is known to be an area highly populated by retirees.

“One of Age Concern’s goals is that older people live in an inclusive society, and with this reduction in banking services that certainly is not including our older people in the community. They are actually creating higher challenges for them.”

The branch is set to close on September 22 and will only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays until then. The next closest branch is in central Napier, about a ten-minute drive.

A BNZ spokesman said that the Taradale branch had one of the lowest rates of usage across its network, even before the impact of Covid restrictions. The main task now done in branches is loading PINs onto cards, which can’t be done online or over the phone.

The branch had also temporarily closed between November last year and June this year due to staffing problems due to Covid.

“Since then, we’ve been able to re-open the branch on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 3pm,” he said.

Customers aren’t visiting some of the bank’s branches and are choosing online and self-service methods instead. About three quarters of BNZ’s customers are digitally active or are using phone banking and Smart ATMs. The bank provides dedicated support for over 70s with a dedicated phone line, he said.

Hill said that many of the older people the Napier branch of Age Concern supports are not digitally literate, and many have difficulty using phone banking due to hearing problems.

“Being digitally active, using internet banking as opposed to face-to-face assistance – that is going to be an inconvenience for them.”

Smart ATMs also presented security issues for older people who felt more vulnerable using them. Travelling the longer distance to the Napier branch would probably involve forking out for a taxi and then perhaps withdrawing a larger amount of cash to reduce the number of trips they need to take, increasing the security risk, she said.

The free bus service from Taradale to Napier was not accessible to them due to mobility issues, and many older people still relied heavily on mobile services in which cash payments are used, she added.

“I guess for a lot of our older generation face-to-face customer service is what they are used to and what they are comfortable with. There are a percentage of older people who go into the bank, withdraw funds and go across to where they can pay their electricity or telephone bills.

“It is probably getting to be a smaller percentage. But I do know a lot of older people who put aside money to pay the gardener, pay the hairdresser and they go down to the branch to get money out.”

Hill said Age Concern’s national office had been in discussions with the Bankers’ Association for a long time over the issues being created for older people by cheque withdrawal, branch closures and reduced hours.

In 2019 the association issued revised guidance to help banks meet the needs of older and disabled customers, but did not include solutions for the issues laid out by Age Concern here. Instead they were focussed on training staff and designing suitable spaces, as well as developing electronic banking services.

The Bankers’ Association has been trialling four new model banking hubs since November 2020 as a way for banks to pool resources and continue to deliver services in areas where banking services have been shutting down, mostly rural towns. The banks participating in the regional banking hubs trial are ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank, TSB and Westpac.

The association recently announced it will expand the regional banking hubs trial until the end of next year and open four new hubs, which are in Martinborough, Ōpunake, Stoke and Twizel – towns with fewer than 2000 people.

Hill said the banking hubs appeared to be a sensible solution for areas with low footfall, but questioned whether consideration would be given to a Taradale hub given that there were bank branches operating in Napier city.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.