SINGAPORE — In the past five years, Madam Sangeeta Singh, 71, has seen more counters at the bank branch she frequents in Toa Payoh being replaced by automated machines.
SINGAPORE — Retired engineer Choo Boon Hock, 72, has an internet banking account, but the only time he used it left him utterly frustrated when he found himself “going in circles” with a chatbot.
“Sometimes can see that I don’t understand and they would ask ‘Aunty are you sure?’ and explain it to me again.In the lead-up to Chinese New Year, long queues had been spotted outside local banks and many in the line were senior citizens. In the past five years, Madam Singh has seen more counters at the DBS Bank branch she frequents in Toa Payoh being replaced by automated machines.
While seniors such as Mr Choo are still holding on to the booklet, the pandemic has undoubtedly led to a higher level of digital banking adoption among the silver generation.Seniors who were raised in the age of passbooks and real bank tellers said that they feel increasingly inadequate to perform basic banking tasks online and have to constantly ask their loved ones for help.
Their fears about being a fraud target are indeed justified: Last year, 790 OCBC customers lost a total ofThe bank had said in January 2022 that about 80 per cent of the amount lost was during the year-end festive period and those who fell prey had provided their online banking log-in credentials and one-time PINs to phishing websites, enabling the scammers to take over their bank accounts and make fraudulent transactions.
Branch footfall saw its steepest drop of 60 per cent during the circuit breaker period from April to June 2020, when the Government imposed movement restrictions to curb the Covid-19 pandemic and the bank had to close half of its branches. DBS Bank, in its response to TODAY’s queries, did not say how many bank branches it had closed in recent years.
UOB said that since June 2017, it had employed and trained a total of 364 temporary staff as “Digital Advocates” at branches to guide customers on how to use its digital banking platform.OCBC has the Digital Silvers programme at its heartland branches, where it conducts one-on-one training for elderly customers to learn how to bank and pay digitally and protect themselves from scams.
“I think seniors need some sort of predictability and ease when banking online. The last thing they need is to be unexpectedly bounced to different channels and this can happen at the click of a button,” said Mr Nur Athirah.An OCBC staff member helping a senior with digital banking. The digital divide — which has left many seniors getting the short end of the stick — has long been a subject of national concern.
Sociologist Shannon Ang of the Nanyang Technological University said the push towards digital banking without paying enough attention to the needs of seniors is not an isolated issue — it adds to the many accumulated ways in which Singapore society has moved ahead at the silver generation’s expense. Account manager Nur Athirah Anuar, 29, who said that she had taught her 72-year-old grandmother how to use internet banking more than 20 times.A better way to approach this is to shift the onus to institutions, including banks, that are trying to digitalise, said Asst Prof Ang.
In 2020, then-Nominated Member of Parliament Anthea Ong said in an adjournment motion speech that there is an urgent priority to close this divide as more needs to be done to help “digital outcasts”, such as seniors and persons with disabilities. On Friday , Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo told reporters that the Government is looking at ways to enhance digital inclusion and is in the process of"This will, of course, include groups that work with different communities on the ground so that we get a better sense of what more we can do to strengthen digital inclusion," she said in Davos where she was attending the World Economic Forum.
“If we base our planning solely on statistics and cater only to the majority segments of our customers, then we will think of those that constitute the small percentage as 'negligible' statistics.” MPs of constituencies with a high concentration of seniors noted that the issue of accessing banking needs has been raised by residents themselves.
Radin Mas MP Melvin Yong said that during the pandemic, his team launched the Silver Click! Programme in the constituency, where seniors, especially those who lived alone, were given a free tablet, a free data SIM card, and twice daily shows via video conferencing app Zoom, to help them stay connected with their neighbours as they were encouraged to stay at home.
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