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The new Warrenpoint banking hub is set to open next week, but what exactly will the new facility offer the local community?
When Ulster Bank closed its Warrenpoint branch in 2022, it was the first time the town was without a staffed bank branch in over a century. And, as is typical when communities lose their final bank, what is most missed is the valued face-to-face service from local bank staff giving trustworthy and personal advice.
Warrenpoint’s banking experience is not unusual. It is reported that 6,128 bank branches have shut across the UK since 2015. New banking hubs are being rolled out by Cash Access UK with the Post Office, and a variety of banks, to improve access to cash and tackle the problems associated with living in what campaigners are calling ‘banking deserts’.
A new banking hub in Warrenpoint at 7 Church Street is set to open next week. Offering a cash machine inside, a counter service run by the Post Office. It will operate between 9 -5 from Monday to Friday.
Danske Bank, Barclays, Santander, Ulster and Bank of Ireland staff will be on hand on consecutive days. Bank of Ireland staff will be available for half a day on Fridays.
In September it was revealed that AIB NI has also joined the Cash Access UK network. It is not yet clear what services they will offer in Warrenpoint and if they will be present in person at the new hub offering a face-to-face service.
In terms of banking hub offerings, the counter services will be near identical to those already on offer at the Post Office inside Spar. Indeed, the opening hours and days at the Post Office counter are longer than those of the banking hub.
At the hub, you will be able to pay in cash and cheques, withdraw cash, check your balance, pay utility bills and top up your gas and electricity as well as manage your bank PIN. Small business customers will also have access to change-giving coin services.
There will not be a street-facing bank machine. Warrenpoint town centre has lost two 24/7 cash machines in recent years (one at the Ulster Bank and the other on Church Street which attracted a fee) with only one remaining the WBR Credit Union.
The banking hub offering, in general, has come in for criticism. Ron Delnevo, chair of the Payment Choice Alliance, says: “what has so far been promised is wholly inadequate. The fact that bank hubs are not required to have a 24/7 ATM is ludicrous. Without such an ATM they are not providing an adequate cash service in any community.”
Delnovo also notes that the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) hasn’t determined what services must be on offer at hubs. Some don’t offer printed statements, for instance.
Considering the relative scarcity of new banking hubs (the Westminster government is committed to seeing 350 launch by 2029), the town is fortunate to host one. And Warrenpoint isn’t even the most arid ‘banking desert’ with some ATMs available and a post office branch offering banking counter services Monday - Saturday.
All additional services are, of course, most welcome but a more ambitious and imaginative banking hub offering could be genuinely transformational to a town like Warrenpoint. But, sadly, the banking hub launch next week seems unlikely to herald a return to that old-fashioned personal service that so many people already miss.
The best place to find some of that elusive and valuable concern for you and your money matters might well still be the WBR Credit Union which has resolutely not deserted us.
Dan Wilson is a writer and author who lives in Warrenpoint.
