The consumer advice centers have sharply criticized the planned reduction of branches at Postbank. In view of ongoing IT problems, the closure is a “blanket mockery” for customers.
Consumer advocates have strongly criticized Deutsche Bank’s plan to close almost half of its branches at its subsidiary Postbank. The news that so many locations are closing right now sounds like “sheer mockery” for customers, said the head of the Federal Association of Consumer Advice Centers, Ramona Pop, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
250 of the 550 Postbank branches are to close
“In view of massive and persistent problems with online banking in recent months, Deutsche Bank should finally improve customer service instead of weakening it by closing branches,” the top consumer advocate continued. In the next two years, up to 250 of the current 550 Postbank branches are to close, as private customer boss Claudio de Sanctis recently announced.
There had recently been significant problems at Postbank and the construction finance provider DSL-Bank in the course of the IT migration to Deutsche Bank. Data from around twelve million Postbank customers had been converted to the major bank’s systems. As a result, some of them were unable to access their accounts. In addition, customer service was difficult to reach.
According to information from consumer advice centers, 1,700 customer complaints about problems at the Deutsche Bank subsidiaries Postbank and DSL were received from the beginning of the year to September. That was almost three times as many as in the entire previous year. According to the federal association, the consumer advice centers were reported to be poorly accessible to the bank and to have many service difficulties. For example, consumers reported that they received contradictory statements from customer service employees.
According to consumer advice centers, IT problems continue
Christian Sewing, head of Deutsche Bank, admitted errors in the technical changeover in September and apologized: “We have not lived up to our responsibility here.” The customers were very disappointed. There is nothing to gloss over about that.
The many protests even brought the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) into the spotlight. The supervisory authority reprimanded Deutsche Bank in an exceptionally harsh manner and appointed a special representative at the beginning of October. He should ensure that the restrictions are removed quickly. Since then, the financial institution says it has been working hard to solve the difficulties and recently reported progress.
All IT problems should be largely resolved by the end of the year. Last week, however, consumer advocates reported that complaints from those affected were continuing. Pop now again demanded that Deutsche Bank solve the problems at Postbank quickly and compensate the injured customers in an unbureaucratic manner.