Ensuring everyone has equal access to banking services is the core objective of AIB’s Vulnerable Customer Team. “Everyone should be able to enjoy the same banking experience,” says AIB head of Customer Vulnerability, Ciara Drain. “I believe banking is quite fundamental for people’s independence and their ability to function in society. There shouldn’t be any barriers there.”
Vulnerability comes in many forms and the team aims to provide appropriate supports to customers as and when they need them. “We’ll all be in situations at some point in our lives when we need support,” says Drain. “And we want to provide the additional supports our customers need when they find themselves in those situations.”
Over the past four years the bank has identified 10,000 vulnerable customers who are in need of additional support and its dedicated Vulnerable Customer Support Team has dealt with over 5,000 difficult and complex cases on behalf of customers during that time. And that doesn’t include the emergency response required to assist refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
“Ukrainian people arriving here faced a lot of difficulties when it came to banking,” Drain notes. “They weren’t familiar with the banking system, many of them didn’t have the documents required to open accounts in the normal way, and the great majority didn’t have a permanent address. It was very important to put supports in place across the industry for them. In AIB we were able to open more than 11,000 accounts for Ukrainian refugees very quickly.”
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Difficulties with access is another area where the team provide supports for customers. “This can be very complex,” she points out. “People can have difficulty communicating, or have impaired vision or hearing, or suffer from mobility issues. We try to ensure we put the right supports in place for each individual customer. What works for one customer may not work for another. And the choice of channel is very important. Digital may be fantastic for one customer, but another might need to use a branch.”
Loss of mental capacity is one of the most complex areas the team has to deal with. Drain gives the example of a person who has been living with dementia for a long period and has come to a stage where they can no longer manage their financial affairs. “Our objective is to support customers to manage their bank accounts for as long as possible. We encourage them to talk to us as early as possible and bring someone they trust along to the branch to help if necessary. We try to prepare customers for what may lie ahead.”
And families may be powerless to help if the right preparations are not in place, as Vulnerable Customer Support Team lead Andrew Keane explains. “There is no automatic legal right for the next of kin to take over the management of a relative’s financial affairs in these situations,” he says. “Family members often don’t understand this. That’s why having an enduring power of attorney in place is so important.”
Financial abuse is another difficult and distressing area. “We see too much financial abuse and elder financial abuse in particular,” says Drain. “And it can often be perpetrated by people who the victim is in a relationship with or dependent on.”
Keane points to a recent case where bank staff became concerned about a high level of withdrawals from an elderly customer’s account. “We contacted the customer, and they knew nothing about it. It turned out that it was someone living in their home who had obtained their bank details and was using their money to fund their lifestyle. We helped the customer to close the account and open new ones - one account to pay the bills from and the other to keep their savings in. We also called in the Gardaí.”
Online romance scams have become a serious problem. “The level of sophistication of the scammers is off the scale,” says Keane. “They go to sites like rip.ie to identify people who are vulnerable due to bereavement. They gather as much information on them as they can, and then wait a while before targeting them on social media. They build up a friendship and relationship over time and then start looking for money to pay a medical bill or travel to Ireland to visit or some other reason.”
The bank is able to help at times. Keane points to an instance of a customer who had fallen prey to a romance scammer and who went to their local branch to make a large foreign currency transfer. “We put a hold on the transfer until we were sure the customer had taken the right advice. The problem is that many people in this situation don’t want to believe they are being scammed.”
Supports for vulnerable customers are delivered primarily by branch staff, Drain points out. “We place a really heavy emphasis on training to ensure that all of our frontline staff can recognise vulnerability and know where to get support within the bank. So far this year we have done 25,000 hours of training with our frontline staff. There is a huge demand for and interest in this training from our staff.”
Once a customer is identified as vulnerable and in need of additional support a flag gets placed on their account record. “We don’t label our customers,” Drain adds. “We just note the additional support they need, and our staff can see that on their record. The customer doesn’t have to tell us about their needs more than once. Sometimes it’s very straightforward. The customer might be hard of hearing and prefer things written down for them, for example. And in other cases, it can be more complex.”
Frontline staff deal directly with about two thirds of the issues that arise concerning vulnerable customers, she continues. “The more complex cases go to our specialist Vulnerable Customer Support Team who look into the background of the case and decide what needs to be done before referring it back to our frontline staff in the branches for action.”
Drain advises any customer who feels they need additional support to contact AIB “If you or someone you are caring for needs help please contact us. Also, let us know if you are concerned about somebody for any reason. We won’t share any customer information but will certainly take note of the issue and take action where appropriate. Finally, I really encourage customers to plan ahead – it can make such a huge difference to have an enduring power of attorney in place. You can contact us about any of these issues on our Additional Support Helpline 0818 227056 (lines open 09:00 – 17:00 Monday to Friday).” Further information is also available on online at aib.ie/help-and-guidance/need-extra-help.