As ever, the banks are only thinking of us, the lowly customers

I do not blame them one little bit...the banks, I mean.

They have been execrated for far too long and are now well within their rights to protect themselves from their customers and the public.

They have moved resolutely with the technological times and have changed the dynamic of their services - from a humanity-heavy Luddite model to a slick new machine-driven product.

Gone forever are the days when we stood in ever-present queues for the cashier, interminably whinging about the tardy service and the old dear who seemed to have put down roots at the top of the line.

Now, instead, we stand in serried ranks of quietude...waiting for the robots to gobble or disgorge our money, and nobody utters a word. Like guilty penitents awaiting confession, we shuffle along with heads bowed in close examination of all the minute features of our constant temptation – our ATM cards.

And when we reach the hallowed cubicle, we tap in numbers and deal with a soulless machine whose only sop to sociability is to ask us soundlessly for our ‘phone number – not, I would suspect, due to any eagerness to engage with us, but rather as a rustic Lothario of yesteryear might say to a discarded lady, “Well, I might give you a ring next Chewsdah fortnight!”

In so many ways, we owe the banks a lot.

Principally, though, we owe them a debt of gratitude for their singular steadfastness in taking their banks out of the community, and their people out of the banks.

I am sure the exemplar is not being lost on others – the post office, libraries, tax-offices, health-service, schools...the scope is endless.

But, fundamentally, I am not happy and I intend to do something about it.

You see, my friend is a small stockholder in the bank and she has the curious habit of attending its AGM (they call it a “court”, for heaven’s sake!).

I will detail her to put my reservations trenchantly to the many mohair-suited directors there – unless, of course, they have been replaced by economical automatons beforehand.

Er, indeed...fat chance.

Councillor Joe Conway

Roselawn

Tramore

Co Waterford