The union’s general secretary, J Solomon, said banks and financial institutions needed to understand that not all customers knew how to do online banking, in the event bank branches were closed.
Banks should not go overboard in implementing online banking for all transactions and banking activities.
“Will everyone living near bank branches do their banking online? No. Not only are you making life hard for these people, but you making employees there unhappy,” he told FMT.
“Businesses will also be affected. Sometimes online-banking in rural areas are not efficient. When the systems are offline, it will make things harder,” he said, adding in such situations, customers who needed to make a fast transaction would be affected.
The Association of Banks in Malaysia and Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia have said recently that the closure of bank branches was part of efforts to increase operational efficiency.
In a joint statement, they said the advancement of technology and electronic payments had made banking activities easier without the need to visit branches.
Solomon also noted that the government wanted to ensure there were many bank branches in rural areas to help businesses and citizens living in such areas.
He added that banks should not forget the role of its employees and customers who had contributed to the banks’ profits.
“Without employees, banks cannot make profits. All this while, employees contributed to the banks’ profits and suddenly, the banks close their branches, ignoring the contributions of their employees.”
In August, Utusan Malaysia reported that CIMB Group had shut down 22 branches nationwide since August last year to reduce operational costs and focus on digital banking.