Financial Services Union present to the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Finance on future of banking

08 October 2024

FSU calls on banks to commit to the provision of retail banking at a community level including a moratorium on branch closures for five years.

The Financial Services Union (FSU) will present their thoughts and ideas on the future role of retail banking in Northern Ireland to a meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Committee for Finance today, Wednesday in Stormont.

In this opening remarks to the Committee John O’Connell, General Secretary of the FSU will highlight how changes made to retail banking  without proper consultation and agreement can have a detrimental effect on communities, staff, and business and how a stakeholder approach to managing change can lead to better outcomes for all.

The submission further calls for:

  • No branch closures for 5 years
  • Government support for financial literacy education for consumers
  • Transparency by LINK on the rollout of hubs
  • A commitment to communities of access to banking services.

The FSU will tell the committee how important a development it is that Finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald MLA, has announced a resumption of the banking roundtable discussion involving relevant stakeholder to recommence this November.

In relation to branch closures Mr O’Connell references that both Danske Bank and Ulster Bank have closed branches this year and he goes on to say they did this “despite knowing that these closures will have a detrimental effect on vulnerable people and small business”.

The submission calls for a  blended model of banking that has the user of the services at the core of its business plan, that is a model of banking that rewards its staff, that is a good place to work and is a model of banking that people can trust.

As part of this blended model of banking the FSU contend that Banking hubs are complementary to the existing banking structure and not a replacement for community bank branches.

ENDS

A full copy of the opening remarks can be found HERE