Dear Sir,
Writing as a retired banker with experience in both domestic branch banking in north London, England and international commercial banking in both the City of London and here in Nassau. I am forced to voice my concerns with the present atrocious state of branch banking, for the simple “man in the street,” we are presently compelled to accept in Nassau. I am hesitant to blame, fully, the branch managers for this debacle because the ultimate responsibility, surely, rests with the senior management, who appear to have forgotten that the bedrock of any commercial business, banking or non-banking, lies with “the customer” that little man in the street.
The banking system here falls apart now the moment a customer walks into “his” branch. The most important words in banking are “Know Your Customer!” Very few cashiers in my own branch even recognize me let alone know my name – ohh, I have banked at this particular office for at least ten years! Please don’t belittle me by saying the volume of business is continually increasing, I’m sorry but the current population of New Providence is somewhere in the region of 200,000 however the population of Greater London, when I started in banking in the mid 1960’s, was well in excess of 7 million! And we certainly did not have the great advantage of a computer on the counter to access the account(s) of the customer in front of me, I had to physically check the ledgers for balance details and cheque clearances and then a file drawer to confirm the customer’s signature. After all that if I had the same customer before me for more than 5 minutes, in a busy branch, I could expect to be looking for a new job! Many times I have stood in a queue here and watched a cashier serving the same customer for 10 minutes and more. This, as mentioned, is the fault of management, a cashier’s sole job is receipt of cash and financial instruments for credit to a customer’s account and payment of cash to the customer, any other enquiry the cashier should direct to another officer for action.
I expect this last will evince cries of staff shortages, perhaps it might prove beneficial, therefore, rather than proudly and brazenly shout of increased, gigantic annual profits, the banks might consider employing more staff and preferably staff who have some form of education and, hopefully, know what they are doing. This would also imply that all staff are paid good wages commensurate with their level of knowledge and experience.
On a final note, the various banks’ latest idea to provide seating in the banking hall is being done for one reason, and one reason only, it is hoped that the customer is less likely shout and scream loudly about the usual 45 – 60 minute, and longer, wait to see a cashier if he or she is fairly comfortably sitting down!
I request my name be withheld,
Thank you
