Banks strengthen personalised service for older people with new measures

• AEB, CECA, and Unacc promote a ten-point plan to improve personalized service for the elderly and people with disabilities
• Branches will extend their face-to-face customer service hours for teller services
• Seniors will receive preferential service in branches and by telephone
• ATMs, applications, and websites will be adapted with simplified language and interfaces

With the aim of helping to accelerate progress toward an inclusive economy and ensuring no group is left underserved, the banking associations AEB, CECA, and Unacc have agreed on a ten-point plan of measures to make short-term progress in personalized service for the provision of financial services to the senior segment and those with different abilities, who require special attention.

The associations commit that their members will carry out a diagnosis of the current situation and adopt the measures contained in this ten-point plan as soon as possible and, at most, within six months, adjusted to their business model in such a way as to ensure personalized, satisfactory service without unjustified delays for people over 65 and people with disabilities.

TEN-POINT PLAN FOR PERSONALIZED SERVICE FOR THE ELDERLY

1. Extension of face-to-face service hours to cover at least 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM for teller services. This service will be provided at the counter or at an ATM.
2. Preferential treatment for seniors in branches, with priority in cases of high customer traffic in offices.
3. Mandatory specific training for commercial network staff on the needs of this group.
4. Preferential telephone service at no additional cost or direct service through a personal representative.
5. Minimum telephone service hours between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM for customers provided with services without a branch.
6. Guarantee of adaptability, accessibility, and simplicity of channels based on their use, making versions with simplified language and interfaces available to these customers.
7. Repair of out-of-service ATMs to ensure cash supply within a maximum of 2 business days and information on the nearest alternative ATM.
8. Offering customers financial and digital education actions and fraud prevention through the most appropriate channel.
9. Entities will communicate the measures they adopt to the senior customer group to inform them of the improvements made available to them.
10. Expansion of the scope of the Financial Inclusion Observatory to properly monitor the measures adopted by entities for the personalized provision of financial services.

The banking sector thus reaffirms its firm commitment to the permanent improvement of service to all its customers, especially the senior group, to whom specific measures were already dedicated, such as early pension payments, physical and digital accessibility programs, or making non-financial entity offices available to perform various operations in municipalities without a branch, among many others.

The ten-point plan for improving service to the elderly is part of a broad range of measures to promote financial inclusion, especially in rural environments and for groups at risk of exclusion, which the three banking associations have signed after informing the General Secretariat of the Treasury of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of its content and development.

Download the press release

Download the full Strategic Protocol document (February 2022)

Download the update to the Strategic Protocol to Strengthen the Banking Sector’s Social and Sustainable Commitment

Download the full Strategic Protocol document (July 2021)

Download the monitoring report on the measures (September 2022)