Illustration by John Sadler www.johnsadlerillustration.com

• THE torrent of closures by high street banks should sound the alarm for those who need their services and those of a certain age, who were not brought up with computers or online banking.

There is a certain arrogance about how all of this is being done, regardless of the needs of the customer or the resulting consequences.

The often ill-conceived way all this has been carried out since the end of Covid-19 and the rude dismissive attitude towards people – often customers of long standing – beggars belief.

If you need anything done with your account or a loan, for example, they give you a card and ask you to telephone someone at a call centre, when they are sitting there in front of you. That’s not the way to professionally do banking business or help the customer.

A lot of this nonsense has been promoted by people at head office, who sit around a table and decide things without looking at the needs of the customers or the poor outcome of their decisions.

Most people don’t want to talk to a remote voice at the end of a telephone, when doing personal banking, especially when arranging things like business or personal loans or finance for a mortgage.

It’s very important to have access to qualified staff who can sit down with the customer to discuss things in a proper manner, especially if documents need to be signed.

The stock answer when questioned: “It’s all online,” or “Here is a card please telephone these people – I can’t help you”. This is not only insulting and dismissive but totally unsatisfactory – like a tape loop and utterly useless.

Considering that NatWest is part owned by the government, some legislation should have been implemented to provide proper banking facilities when branches are closed, like a hub once a week at least, for clients who are not online or need help over an issue.

This is another example of our political class letting down the voter and taxpayer. Politicians who only care about their careers and couldn’t care less about things that affect an often large proportion of the population.

JOHN SCOTT-MORGAN, NW3