Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse is the largest savings bank in East Germany. Now she wants to close 30 of the 141 locations. This worries a lot of people, especially the elderly.
Filippo Smaldino is frustrated. The mayor of the Mühlenbeck neighborhood is proud of his growing community. More and more people are moving to the idyllic location between forests and lakes on the northern outskirts of Berlin. Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse (MBS) has now announced that the savings bank will close here in August. Not only that: ATMs should disappear, too.
For Smaldino, the problem is clear: His neighborhood is losing its appeal. He doesn’t understand why there shouldn’t be any potential for branch offices in a growing community and why its citizens are denied easy access to cash.
exchange place
There is also a lack of understanding 50 kilometers south of Mühlenbeck in Wilhelmshorst near Potsdam. The town of 3,200 residents discusses: Seniors are said to be especially having trouble earning and banking after Sparkasse closed. Manfred Ramin, 83, pointed out that he can still drive now, but one day he won’t. And public transport in neighboring towns runs too infrequently.
His neighbour, Beate-Susanne Sprenger, adds that online banking cannot replace everything: “Of course, going to a savings bank, talking and exchanging ideas is a quality of life.” Another Wilhelmshorster complained that the center was being taken from the town . The pharmacy closed a few years ago and is now a savings bank.
How savings banks could justify closing
Robert Heiduck of MBS knows all these arguments against closing branches. He assures that the decision was not easy to make. Still, this is the only way to future-proof Sparkasse. It’s not about saving money or cutting jobs. On the contrary: companies want to invest.
Branches become thinner for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, fewer and fewer people are coming to the small branches of the community. Instead, the use of online offers is steadily increasing. “Seventy-five percent of all our payment transactions happen online. Hardly anyone makes paper transfers anymore,” Heiduck emphasizes. Savings banks also suffer from a shortage of skilled workers, so bundling the skills of employees together makes sense of.
Is longer-distance consultation “reasonable”?
In any case, the bank’s model is that of a “hybrid customer” — someone who banked partly online and partly in a branch. It is important to provide them with a better offer. Simple things can be done conveniently on a mobile phone or computer. “For things that you don’t do every day – like superannuation, home financing – you need personal advice and we don’t want to run away. We rely on a relationship of trust with our clients. For discussions like this – once a year, twice – It makes sense that the road to the branch is a little longer,” Heiduck said, explaining Sparkasse’s strategy.
At the same time, it is investing in expanding its digital services and expanding its video and phone banking offerings. Especially for older customers, calling is a way to save on a trip to the branch. In addition, there is a “Sparkassenbus” on the road as a mobile feeder in areas where the remaining feeder network is too thin. Because even after the planned closure, MBS will still have the densest branch network in the region compared to all other financial institutions.
Services of General Interest especially for the elderly
Mühlenbeck’s mayor, Smaldino, is not convinced. MBS as a savings bank is an institution under public law and is supported by the State and cities of Brandenburg. Your work is different from that of your private competitors. “The ethics at Sparkasse is, and that’s how I’ve always understood it: We serve the smaller middle class, we lend to small and medium-sized businesses.” It’s about public service, not business.
People “run into booths” as information about branch closures became public, Smaldino said. Especially the elderly, “tears streaming down their faces”. After all, if the nearest ATM is hard to reach, something very useful is missing. “How can a grandma get twenty dollars for her grandson and save it for her birthday?”