Work together to resolve "long queues" at bank outlets

  Recently, as Shanghai and other places have entered the stage of fully restoring normal production and living order, financial business, especially the business of the elderly, new citizens, small and micro business owners, and individual industrial and commercial households, has ushered in a peak, and many banks have lined up at the door. long queue.

In this regard, relevant departments have actively taken measures to require business outlets and service windows to "open as much as they should", and to "be as early as possible and as long as possible to extend business hours", so as to form a joint effort to resolve the problem of "long queues" at bank outlets.

  It is understood that although the rise of mobile network payment has diverted the business volume of many traditional bank outlets, the elderly population still has a large demand for offline financial services.

From June 1 to 15 this year, the total amount of cash supply in Shanghai was nearly four times that of the same period last year.

  How to better meet demand and improve cash service capabilities?

The Shanghai Headquarters of the People's Bank of China recently issued the "Notice on Further Doing a Good Job in Cash Services", urging all banks to strengthen the management of business outlets, maintain the on-site order of outlets, take multiple measures to implement classified measures, and establish a long-term guarantee mechanism for pension payment. Improve the level of cash service work.

  Specifically, the Shanghai Headquarters of the People's Bank of China, while increasing the amount of cash allocation, requires all banks to strengthen the initiative and forward-looking of cash service work. Conditional business outlets should be open on weekends and provide cash services to increase the effectiveness of cash services. service hours.

At the same time, increase the operation and maintenance guarantee of cash self-service equipment such as ATM machines and the frequency of adding banknotes to ensure that the service of cash self-service equipment is not interrupted, and fully consider the actual situation that the temperature has continued to rise in the near future. The public provides the necessary humanistic care.

The "Notice" also emphasizes that banks handling pension payment business should formulate targeted emergency service plans for the peak hours of pension payment, and establish a long-term guarantee mechanism to effectively meet the cash needs of the elderly.

  In terms of the service efficiency of bank outlets, the Shanghai Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau proposed to fully meet the financial service needs of customers and effectively solve the people's "urgency and worries" problem.

Including doing a good job in the service management and planning of business outlets, strengthening the real-time management of outlets, and dynamically grasping the passenger flow situation; for key outlets that have relatively concentrated population in surrounding communities, carry out pension payment business, and other nearby outlets are temporarily closed, phased temporary measures are adopted. Early opening or late closing of business, business as usual on weekends and weekends, and improving the efficiency of disinfection and sterilization at noon; improve on-site and off-site appointment services to avoid customers waiting in long queues, and provide "green channels" for elderly customers with limited mobility.

  Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Merchants Union Finance, told this reporter that China's banking industry has more than 220,000 offline outlets and more than 1 million self-service equipment.

"In addition to receiving customers, bank branch staff also have a series of tasks to do, such as business summary, cash inventory, storage and delivery, etc. The external business hours of bank branches are not the same as the actual working hours of bank branch staff." Dong Ximiao said that solving the problem of "long queues" at bank branches is closely linked to helping the elderly cross the "digital divide".

For financial institutions such as banks, improvement measures should be taken in three aspects: First, provide more convenience for the elderly to handle financial services. For example, on the premise of compliance with laws and regulations, explore the opening of some counter businesses to allow the children of the elderly to act on their behalf. , and actively provide door-to-door services; the second is to carry out "age-friendly" transformation of existing products and services, such as launching an elderly version of the mobile banking APP, using concise pages, larger fonts, and adding voice reading functions; the third is to innovatively launch Some products and services for the elderly make the product description easy to understand and meet the financial needs of the elderly.

  In response to the problem of "long queues" at bank outlets, Tian Lihui, Dean of the Financial Development Research Institute of Nankai University, believes that in the short term, banks can solve the problem by extending business hours, increasing business windows and front-line staff; Withdrawal, transfer, pension cash withdrawal and other procedures, improve operational efficiency, and promote the further popularization of online banking and telephone banking.

  It is understood that the Shanghai Headquarters of the People's Bank of China will continue to urge all banks in Shanghai to improve the level of cash services through window guidance, inspections and unannounced visits, and strive to build a long-term mechanism for the development of inclusive finance for the elderly.

  Wang Junling