HONG KONG: We're Shortchanged, Cry Elderly

HONG KONG (The Standard), July 24, 2006: Withdrawing money from the bank may be a routine task for many, but for elderly public housing residents like Chik Yuet-sin and Siu Chor-wan cashing their pension checks has become a test of frustration and endurance. Chik, 78, lives in Diamond Hill, and Siu, 70, in nearby Tsz Wan Shan. One morning recently, they took a bus to the Mong Kok branch of HSBC - one of the designated banks where they can deposit their monthly old-age allowances of about HK$700. But after queuing for more than an hour, they left disappointed, with the queue for counter services remaining more than 100 long. "We still could not see the front of the queue," Chik said. "As I cannot stand for a long time, I had to leave the queue. It was just a waste of time as I had queued for so long without getting anything done." Chik and Siu said they would have to spend another day looking for a bank that will accept their checks but with a shorter queuing time, adding it would take them another bus ride to withdraw a few hundred dollars. The long queues and other inconveniences are relatively new experiences for Chik and Siu - they said it does not seem that long ago when they could simply go downstairs to the local HSBC branch that was common in most public housing estates. But the closure of two branches at Tze Wan Shan in recent years has left only the Wong Tai Sin branch open to serve residents of both districts. Tired of the long queues there, Chik and Siu tried their luck in Mong Kok. But there, they were confronted with another grueling wait. "We don't know how to use a computer. The elderly can hardly remember the six digits of a PIN number. So, an ATM machine is no substitute for counter services," said Siu, accusing the bank of not caring about elderly customers. Tsing Yi resident Wong Chui-yuk, 72, does not think it's safe to withdraw cash from an ATM machine. "I'm afraid of strangers queuing behind me and snatching my money," Wong said. "Besides, I don't know how to use the machine. It's really inconvenient for the elderly not to have a bank branch nearby. "If banks make money from our savings, they should not close down branches. Doing so means they're neglecting their corporate responsibility to take care of the public." Lam Chan-siu, 58, lives on Park Island and is also concerned about the inconvenience to older customers. "Old people have trouble remembering numbers. And it would be a frightening experience for them if they met a thief." Over past five years, 154 branches of the three note-issuing banks - HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China - and 92 branches of other major banks have closed. Since 2001, the number of bank branches has been cut from 1,460 to 1,200, down nearly 20 percent. The closures have sparked debate over whether banks are fulfilling their corporate responsibility. Mandy Tam Heung-man, a lawmaker representing the accountancy sector, and who's also a Wong Tai Sin district councillor, said the HSBC branch closure in Lung Poon Court, Diamond Hill, has caused great inconvenience to residents, many of whom are elderly. Tam said she is deeply concerned to see elderly customers having to spend hours traveling and queuing at different branches in other districts. "Banks should not be just concerned about cutting costs, but failing to meet the needs of society." She said branch closures damage a bank's reputation - especially when banks are making good profits - and force customers to take their business to competitors. Wong Hung, assistant professor of social work at the Chinese University, agreed that closures have caused inconvenience to older customers because they need the banks to cash their government allowances. He said the elderly have supported the growth of banks during their working lives, and banks should care for them, even if doing so does not earn them a lot of revenue. "To a certain extent, [neglecting elderly pensioners] is a form of exclusion," Wong said. But City University of Hong Kong associate professor of economics and finance Michael Wong Chak-sham said it is understandable for banks to close branches for cost effectiveness. "These days, banks' main income sources do not come from services provided by retail branches, but from individual financial management or corporate financial services, so bank closures are a result of these changes," he said. As a bank is also a business, Wong said making profits has a higher priority than corporate responsibility, even though corporate responsibility is being emphasized by all kinds of organizations. He also did not think closing branches would hurt the image of banks, as building a corporate reputation can be established through different business strategies. Instead, Wong said government should introduce more savings bank services at post offices to serve customers on welfare or other allowances. Chong Tai-leung, an associate professor of economics at the Chinese University, said that while branch closures inconvenience the public, it is difficult to criticize banks' commercial decisions because it is up to them how they allocate their resources. He also said banks are not public utilities like water, electricity or bus services. "It's not easy to force a bank to open a branch. There are many banks, but also many competitors." He does not think branch closures will harm the banks. "An image of a business can be built through different ways, such as charity or education," Chong said. HSBC executive director Peter Wong Tung-shun, who also chairs the Hong Kong Association of Banks, rejected the charge that banks had failed to show corporate responsibility at a Legislative Council meeting on July 3. He said banks have been demonstrating corporate responsibility by participating in community activities, making charitable donations and cutting fees for those in need. He stressed that competition among banks in Hong Kong is intense and banks have overcome a financial crisis in the past few years. "The success of banks in Hong Kong did not only rely on strong laws and monitoring, but operators need to be flexible to meet different challenges," Wong said. As such, in an open market like Hong Kong, banks should operate according to business principles completely, he said. "We're not putting profit-making ahead of social responsibility. But if a business fails and closes down, how is that being responsible to shareholders, customers and staff? " Wong asked. He said HSBC is looking at technology to transfer welfare money for the elderly through Octopus cards. HSBC senior corporate communications manager Ruby Chan Pui-yu said HSBC has 292 services locations, including 114 branches and other locations such as ATM and financial centers. But she would not say how many branches had closed in recent years, adding the "service modes" of the bank have changed with the times. Branch offices provided more customer services like financial management services and more automatic banking services, such as ATM and Internet banking. Social welfare legislator Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung disagreed with HSBC's Wong. "Besides the major goal of making profit, the business process and results of companies should be socially acceptable," he said. He believes banks should place a priority of social responsibility as they operate through established systems that rely on social cooperation. © 2005 The Standard, Sing Tao Media Corporation.