The Kelantan Barisan Nasional lawmaker said he had appealed to the bank to send an officer to the home of the ailing woman to resolve her problem but was rejected.
So, he said, he was forced to bring the woman to the bank in an ambulance.
“Before we asked the assistance of a doctor, we had talked to the bank. The bank said it could not send its staff to the home of a customer but, instead, the customer must come to the bank,” Mat Razi told FMT.
“I had to assume responsibility to resolve this problem because the woman needed money urgently.”
Sinar Harian daily reported on Monday that the assemblyman had brought an elderly woman hooked to an oxygen machine round-the-clock in an ambulance to a bank in Kota Bharu to renew her expired ATM card.
She needed the card to withdraw the monthly financial aid deposited in her account by the Welfare Department.
Azizah Mohamad, from Kampung Kubang Sawa, could only disconnect from her oxygen machine for 25 minutes at a time, which made it difficult to send her to the bank in a normal vehicle.
The incident was criticised by the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) which said a customer should not need to be dragged to the bank to change an ATM card or for any other transactions.
“It is ridiculous that this was instructed by the bank which would be cruel. If that really happened, then the bank management must take action,” said J Solomon, the secretary-general of NUBE.
Solomon said ailing bank customers were supposed to be able to ask for an officer to visit them in their homes to assist them in facilitating transactions. This incident has tarnished the reputation of financial institutions as if there are no other ways to assist bank customers, he said.
Mat Razi said he did not want to blame the bank concerned and hoped banks in future would be more open and prepare alternatives to help sickly customers.
“I’m not angry and not looking from a skewed view, but I am asking banks to think of ways to facilitate sickly customers. I am grateful to the staff of the bank concerned who quickly processed the woman’s new card the moment she arrived,” he said.