Author: Philip vanDyk

“Frontline bank staff were inundated with calls from customers seeking assistance with lending and cashflow. And there has also been a huge increase in home loan applications in the last year. Given all this, it’s perhaps not surprising that some more customers had a less-than-perfect experience, and yet our research shows public attitudes to banking… Read more »

“Anyone concerned about their bank fees should talk to their bank to discuss their particular situation and how they can avoid fees,” he said. “Some banks waive fees for older customers. Everyone’s circumstances are a bit different and it pays to have a chat about how your bank can help you.”

Beaumont said banks understood change could be difficult for some customers. “When these often challenging decisions are made, banks put in place significant programmes to communicate and support their customers through the change.”

The New Zealand Bankers’ Association says for banking talk to your new bank, which will provide you with a Switching Bank Request Form. Once you’ve completed and returned that form your bank will identify and transfer over all your recurring payments, taking most of the pain away. Nice.

Beaumont said banks lend where they can, subject to lending criteria, which includes the borrower’s equity or deposit and their ability to repay the loan, so they weren’t “going in over their head”.

Politicians from both sides of the House sought answers on how banks would protect the estimated 1% to 2% of customers who were likely to never access digital banking services. NZBA chief executive Roger Beaumont said phone banking was an “elegant solution” for customers in this situation, because most still had a landline.

“It’s great to have interest in our banking hubs trial from regions like the Far North. Banks are closing some branches because customers prefer more convenient ways of banking. Some branches get fewer than 10 customers a day.”

Roger Beaumont talks to RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan about the regional Banking Hubs trial.