Banking and the elderly

The restructuring of the banking business for various reasons over the last few years has had consequences for users. The decrease in the branch network to reduce duplication and personnel costs has led to the reduction of face-to-face attention to customers, but also to the removal of ATMs. They have risen to just over 48,000, to levels of 20 years ago, a deficit that is especially significant in the towns, but that has also been installed in the cities.

According to the employers of the sector, a large part of its clientele has managed to adapt to this change and 60% of banking services are already carried out through digital protocols. But at the same time, the protests of those who find not facilities, but obstacles, in the digital transformation have begun to proliferate. Especially, older people may not have access to technology or the skills and knowledge necessary to carry out online operations and therefore require personalized attention from their financial institutions, which they deserve following having trusted for years on them. Our elders feel excluded both due to technical difficulties and the scarcity of terminals which in many cases implies more travel or (with the pandemic as an aggravating circumstance) the requirement to process prior appointments to be attended in person.

At this point, there is no risk that the digitization of financial services will leave people (the elderly, but also people in various situations of vulnerability) who cannot keep up with it by the wayside. A danger that it also affects public administrations or service companieswhich often turn the reduction of face-to-face windows into an unapproachable digital fronton.

Faced with this situation, a Valencian retiree has managed to gather, in less than two months, more than half a million signatures on the ‘I’m older, not an idiot’ campaign. The initiative, which launches a cry of dignity in favor of the elderly, has had its echo in the Cortes. Various parties have registered non-law proposals that demand greater attention to a sensitive group in a situation of social vulnerability, with different points of action that reduce the gap or with guarantees to avoid financial exclusion, recognizing the access to cash as a universal service.

Bank employers have reacted with the promise of a series of measures to adapt and simplify the operations of their older customers, improve their services and offer effective and preferential attention, in person and by telephone, designed for this population group. Proposals that extend the Strategic Protocol to Reinforce the Social and Sustainable Commitment of the Bank approved last summer. As the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, has warned, cannot be cosmetic measures. Banks must be extremely sensitive to these access difficulties. But if his socially responsible reaction were not enough, a regulatory change to make it easy. Without excluding that said change came from the EU, preventing Spanish banks from assuming greater obligations that would reduce their competitiveness with entities from other countries.

On the other hand, also the Administration itself must review its protocols. When digital exclusion directly affects social rights, it is not an exaggeration to speak of a lack of democracy.