CUSTOMERS at an Irish bank will soon no longer be able to withdraw less than €700 or lodge less than €3,000 at the counter in some of its branches.
Bank of Ireland has confirmed that it also plans to ban customers from making cash and cheque lodgements of less than €3,000 in-bank in some branches from later this month. The move is designed to encourage customers to use ATMs, self-service devices or electronic banking.
The bank said it understands the changes may be a new way of banking for some of its customers and branch teams would be available to help.
But the Republic’s finance minister Michael Noonan last night described the move as “unnecessary” and called on the bank to clarify how it will deal with vulnerable customers.
Age Action spokesman Justin Moran said many of its members were already “frustrated” by how some banks were attempting to limit face-to-face engagement.
And ALONE chief executive Sean Moynihan warned that many older people would not be able to adapt to using ATMs.
He suggested that the move could result in people keeping large amounts of cash in their home making them more vulnerable to burglary.
The National Digital Strategy has said that only three per cent of people aged over 75 have ever used the internet.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil’s enterprise spokesman Dara Calleary claimed the decision to impose the “rigid restrictions” would hit small business owners.
“For cash intensive businesses like retail SMEs, pubs and cafés, the new withdrawal arrangements, combined with the ban on cash lodgements of up to €3,000 in over the counter business at branches, will seriously impede the ease of doing business. We need to be making life easier for small businesses, not harder,” he said.
RENUA Ireland deputy leader Billy Timmins said that Bank of Ireland's proposals were proof of “how little banks have learnt from the crash”.
