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IN our digital age there is a conflict between the services people say they want and the ones they actually pay for.
In theory, we all want to buy our food from a market stall owned by the grower. We want to get our books from a bookshop, managed by an expert on Joyce, and our music from a record shop, run by a man who used to play in a blues band.
We want to get our white goods from someone who knows how they work and our clothes from an assistant who will make sure they fit and maybe (although this was never very likely) tell us honestly how they look.
That’s what we say. What we do is rather different. More and more of us are getting our books loaded onto a Kindle and our music from Spotify. We go online for shopping of all sorts and sacrifice the personal touch for the convenience of delivery to our homes.
The same goes for banking.
Cyprus still has a high proportion of traditional banks, the sort where you go through a real door and talk to a real person.
The trouble is that the door may not be open at the time you want to do business and there may be a lengthy queue to meet that real person. So, while we laud the virtues of face to face banking, we are increasingly doing our bank business online.
So, what sort of service should a bank offer? That’s the question facing the Bank of Cyprus as it prepares next year’s budget.
In a letter to staff, deputy CEO and chief operating officer, Christakis Patsalides, has spoken of increased automation and simplified processes which will create opportunities for cutting labour costs.
Mr Patsalides said banks across the globe were seeing reduced revenues mainly because of low-interest rates, but also because of high operating costs arising from a strict regulatory and supervisory environment.
The bank has closed 15 branches this year, a move it says reflects a drop in over-the-counter business.
There’s a chicken-and-egg dilemma here since, obviously, if the bank keeps cutting its over-the-counter services, fewer people will use them.
Nevertheless, it is hard to argue with the figures quoted by Mr Patsalides. Some 75 per cent of the bank’s transactions are carried out through digital channels and the rate goes up to 83 for transactions by private citizens.
Nine of every 10 withdrawals are done at ATMs and 92 per cent of all money transfers are done online.
This change in the way we do business poses a challenge to the banks and also to their customers, who need to learn the new ways before the old ways vanish altogether.
The digital banking age also poses challenges to financial consultants such as my own company, the Woodbrook Group. They are now competing with online financial managers and financial budgeting apps.
However, there is a difference, and it is one I feel strongly about.
I am convinced that, when it comes to advice, the personal touch is still essential.
No two people have the same circumstances, or the same requirements and no app has yet been invented that can match the resources of an individual to their expectations – because people don’t explain their expectations to an app.
Our skilled and experienced financial consultants can help you to identify your personal needs and devise solutions and services that are customised to your unique situation, objectives and goals.
A British bank used to call itself the bank that likes to listen. And that should still be the motto of a good financial adviser.
We need to hear what you want to achieve with the wealth you have, or hope to have, and to discuss how your targets can best be reached.
We can’t do the digital banking for you, but we can help make sure that you will always have something worth banking.
