Forty-four former Co-op branches are to close in September as the Hellenic Bank buy-out starts to take physical shape as a once illustrious institution bites the financial dust.
The 40-odd closures are part of a strategy announced by Hellenic Bank CEO Ioanis Matsis, at the Annual General Meeting, confirming that 100 former Co-op branches will close as they will not be transferred to HB.
From a total of 172 Co-op branches, a 100 will eventually get the chop over a 15-month period leaving 72 to be converted into Hellenic outlets.
This will boost the bank’s branch network from the current 52 to 124 as it vies with largest lender Bank of Cyprus for business.
Co-op customer will be able to go about their business as usual at their branches on Monday, as all branches will be operating under the management of Hellenic.
But over the following weeks some 44 branches will be the first to go.A list of the branches affected by the closures has yet to be made public.
“On Monday an announcement will be placed at all former Co-op branches informing clients which branches are to be closed within the month of September. Clients will also be informed of where their accounts will be transferred to,” a bank source told the Financial Mirror.
The source said that village branches which do not have much traffic will be the ones to close down first.
“There are branches which are currently servicing only three or four people per day. There is no sense in keeping those,” commented the source.
The official said that 28 out of the 44 branches to be closed are open only a few days a week.
“There are some full-time branches in bigger villages which will also be closed down, but again those do not see much traffic and locals can be serviced by shops in neighbouring villages”.
Hellenic has received complaints from village communities which will be left without a Co-op branch.
The source gave an example of Dromolaxia in Larnaca, admittedly one of the bigger villages of the island, which as understood will be left without any bank branch.
Dromolaxia Community Council has protested over the closure of the local branch saying that residents will be left without a bank.
“However, this particular branch had very little business,” the source said.
Asked on how the bank plans to deal with rural areas where the locals will not have easy access to a Hellenic branch, the source said that the bank intends to introduce mobile banking branches.
“There will essentially be trucks turned into banking branches, also equipped with an ATM machine. In these mobile branches people will be able to perform all their banking transactions,” explained the source.
“This is a common practice of many banks abroad, adopted so as to reach clients which either have mobility problems or live in remote areas.”
Hellenic – the island’s second largest bank – is ready deploy two such mobile banking units to service communities islandwide.
