Today at 1.30 pm, mr Hoogervorst, Minister of Finance, officially started using the ABN AMRO - ANBO Service bus. This is a bus in which ABN AMRO provides bank services (for the elderly clients/customers in remote and rural areas) and in which the Union of the Elderly (ANBO) also provides its services. The bus will start touring as of February 24 and will visit 12 locations (6 per week) in two weeks. See also this press release.
The initiative of ABN AMRO should be viewed against the background of a considerable reduction of bank branches and the complaint of interest groups that service of banks is being reduced too much. It is also relevant to note that a draft law is in preparation (MP Crone) that would prescribe banks to open branches in certain areas. As a result all banks are active to ensure proper service delivery. Rabobank focuses in the segment of the elderly on further introduction of the Chipknip as the payment instrument in the residencies for elderly. And Postbank has started in November 2002 to introduce so called money withdrawal service points (franchise service for small shopkeepers).
