BoC to shutter 15 branches, no redundancies ??

[Paphos Life]

Bank of Cyprus said it plans to shutter 15 branches as part of restructuring but no jobs will be lost at this stage, it emerged on Friday.In an internal memo to staff, the bank said the move would affect 15 branches, which will be announced in the coming days....

Read the article and chat about it below...

[smudger]

Strange - we are in the process of opening a bank account for our complex management committee with BOC. and the comment was made by the person we dealt with that 'many more people are closing accounts than opening them'. We had no idea of the context, but seemed an odd remark. Who knows, maybe it's true in the light of the opening post??

[ApusApus]

What I want to know is how do you "shutter" a bank?


Shane

[smudger]

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... sh/shutter

Shutter can also mean to close down a business

[ApusApus]

Thanks smudger, you learn something new every day!


Shane

[Devil]

I've already closed my BoC accounts, mainly because of 'user-unfriendliness'!

[mike strand2]

We closed our BoC account down after our mortgage was paid off. No longer use BoC for personal banking, but on rare occasions have to go into one branch or another. The one thing which always strikes me in any BoC branch is how long the queues are...and how long it takes to get to the front of the queue, compared to Hellenic.

I'm with Hellenic but unhappy that nearly all their banks are in the centre of Pafos old town, whereas BoC have some in outlying villages and are much easier to park close by.

[Lincoln]

Like a lot of people who moved to Cyprus, we opened an account with BOC. It was Cyprus pounds then. Well it did not take us all that long to realise that the BOC was not to our liking and changed accounts to the COOP. Sad to say that we lasted an even shorter period with them and are now with Alpha bank. Have been with them now for many years and delighted with them.

[trevnhil]

I suppose choice of bank is also influenced by how near you are to a Branch. We have BOC in Polemi so it is very handy for us.. There used to be a Co-op bank in the village but that closed down a year or so ago..

[PW in Polemi]

I suppose choice of bank is also influenced by how near you are to a Branch. We have BOC in Polemi so it is very handy for us.. There used to be a Co-op bank in the village but that closed down a year or so ago..

And all Polemi Co-op accounts were transferred to Stroumbi, not a million miles away! When I do go in, I find the staff very helpful, just as the BofC staff in Polemi are.

[WHL]

I've been with the BOC for over 30 years and had nothing but excellent service with them.
Friendly staff, know your name, but I often try and dodge seeing the manager, because they insist on sitting in their office, to have a coffee with them

[mike strand2]

I'm with Hellenic but unhappy that nearly all their banks are in the centre of Pafos old town, whereas BoC have some in outlying villages and are much easier to park close by.

What...TOKR? Geroskipou? Mesoghi Ave? Near the new Pop Life? I accept that in Paphos outlying villages BoC have a better presence. Not so sure the same is true in Limassol and Larnaca though.

Maybe I'm just feeling miffed that Hellenic chose to close the excellent Coop bank in Kissonerga, now we have no banks (BoC withdrew some time ago) as well as no Post Office!

[WHL]

Just a thought, maybe one of the reasons the Co op bank went under was having too many branches all over the place?

I was in London recently and went into my Halifax branch, usually there are three windows, staffed with smiling faces, what we got was no windows, but four ATMs with one lady walking about helping, thickos like me who get in a mess using the machines?

[PolemIan]

I suppose choice of bank is also influenced by how near you are to a Branch. We have BOC in Polemi so it is very handy for us.. There used to be a Co-op bank in the village but that closed down a year or so ago..

Trev,

I was told yesterday that the Polemi BoC is one of the ones that is closing. A shame if correct as it will have an impact on the charity, coffee and kiosk shops as so many stop at the bank and then go into one of the above. The greater pain will be for the 20 odd villages it serves. I’m not surprised though, as I imagine it’s not generating much in the way of profit via loans, mortgages etc and seems to primarily for cash withdrawals / deposits and bills payments in which there is little profit. With other changes,that mini square area where you bump into people and watch the world go by, could become pretty dead. The new Hellenic in Stroumbi I’m told is still operating as a CoOp and despite the new sign, will not fully transition to Hellenic operations until later this year.

Ian

[trevnhil]

well usually there is no smoke without fire, but if it does shut it will, as you say, be a big blow to many of the smaller villages as well as Polemi.. I have noticed in recent years that it has gone from two tellers to one

[chatsworth]

Sadly I can confirm the Polemi branch is closing in Feb and the atm will be removed also.
A protest and appeal to the BoC management is planned.
I feel sorry for the elderly who have no internet and do not drive.
Profit before people again !

[Devil]

Today, the Hellenic started a new service. They came to our village in the sticks with a 'mobile bank', and they performed a complex transfer operation for me. It was a van with 2 young ladies who were very helpful and it parked in the churchyard. Very impressive. Saved me 20 km there and back to Larnaca that would have otherwise been necessary. GREAT SERVICE!

[smudger]

This thread reminds me if the UK, where banks are systematically being closed in rural areas leaving the poulation devoid of any access to cash.
And whilst many many older people are left virtually with no ready cash I just cannot see any other branches providing a virtual cash service !

[chatsworth]

Not many or any Cypriots would agree with your comments HiC, I think the happenings of 2012-13 in the banking sector will never be forgiven and rightly so in my opinion

[PolemIan]

Spot on HIC, despite the views of some, the banks do not exist to provide a social service any more than any other commercial organisation. Not for profit organisations are in the same boat, if they don’t make enough for whatever charity they are supporting, they need to look at the cost base and consolidate properties to lower rental costs, or relocate to a better spot to try and boost income.

Interesting that BoC are saying there will be no redundancies associated with any of these closures, staff costs are by far the highest cost, so in closing Polemi for example, all they are really doing is saving on lease, utility costs and cash transport costs - also implies not selling any income generating products. Perhaps they too will go down the mobile bank route as well. It could turn out better for some if it means they don’t have to travel to a certain village just to do banking. John Hourican, the CEO, is ex NatWest who are probably the biggest supporter of this type of service in the U.K. so perhaps it’s on his radar of change initiatives to rebuild BoC. In his at RBS/NatWest he wasn’t involved Retail banking but he will have been aware of such intitiatives.