Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has described today\u2019s announcement of branch closures across the island by Bank of Ireland as \u201cthe wrong decision at the worst possible time, with serious consequences for customers and staff\u201d.<\/p>\n
Teachta Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning\u2019s announcement by Bank of Ireland that it is to close over a third of its branches in the south and more than half of its branches in the north from September is the wrong decision at the worst possible time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis comes in the teeth of a global pandemic and less than two weeks after Ulster Bank announced its withdrawal from the southern market. It is a huge blow for customers and staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cBank of Ireland has attempted to justify this announcement based on a fall in branch visits over the past twelve months. This is hardly surprising given the entire population has had its movements significantly restricted in response to a public health emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn reality, the bank is using Covid-19 for cover, punishing customers for following public health regulations. This is not just a cynical move, but a slap in the face that will hurt customers, staff and communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis knee-jerk reaction will leave vulnerable customers without access to essential services.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can Bank of Ireland engage with and prepare these customers for branch closures when public health restrictions are in place? Why was there no consultation and no stakeholder engagement?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only conclusion I can draw is that they have no regard for their customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s announcement will further damage communities that have already been economically left behind by government policy over the past decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch has found that bank branch closures reduce SME lending growth by 63 percent in affected areas, rising to 104 percent when it is the last branch in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support the call of the Financial Services Union for a moratorium on branch closures until the end of 2022; once this pandemic has ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy colleague and Sinn F\u00e9in Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty TD will be writing to the CEO of Bank of Ireland, the Minister for Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank in light of today\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister is a major shareholder in Bank of Ireland, while the Governor is charged with consumer protection. They have a responsibility to do all they can to put the interests of customers and communities first.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe taxpayer poured \u20ac4.7 billion into Bank of Ireland during the financial crisis – the least the Irish people deserve from the bank is respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is true that banking is changing and that is why Sinn F\u00e9in have called on the establishment of a Future of Banking Forum to discuss issues such as banking in a digital age, and how banks can best respond to serve customers and communities that rely on their services.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s announcement by the Bank of Ireland was not strategic, but a knee-jerk reaction that cannot be justified. They should reverse this decision immediately and commit to a moratorium on branch closures until the Covid-19 pandemic ends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has described today\u2019s announcement of branch closures across the island by Bank of Ireland as \u201cthe wrong decision at the worst possible time, with serious consequences for customers and staff\u201d. Teachta Crowe said: \u201cThis morning\u2019s announcement by Bank of Ireland that it is to close over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4484,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4482\/revisions\/4484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}