There was a time when every major branch of every major bank had a business account manager embedded inside it 6 days a week, now you are lucky if you can even get to speak to a business specialist unless your existing business is a serious force to be reckoned with, and if you are starting out, forget it, inane and pointless questions online with chatbots that have brain damage.
Branches closed, staff that are there, doing there best in difficult circumstances to help customers, but with, in many cases, limited resources and access, they do a stirling job, often in the face of frustrated customers and in the meantime, their bosses sit in their ivory towers not caring.
The British Democratic Alliance believe firmly that this sheer indifference and reliance on technology must change, and if the banks will not change the system, then we will legislate for them to force the change. We understand that bricks and mortor cost money, we understand that keeping each and every branch open puts them at a disadvantage compared to the purely online organisations such as Monzo or Starling, but equally, these organisations do not make billions from charging small retail outlets for card payments and other transactions – so its a two way street, you taketh with one hand, we taketh away with the other.
We will campaign and legislate to ensure that highstreet banks are fully staffed at weekends, when people are not at work and can get into branches to resolve issues, further, we will campaign and legislate that all major towns with populations of 30,000 or more have business account managers avialable 7 days per week in branch.
The nonsense that banks think they are doing their customers a favour needs to end, in the modern era a bank account is now not only an absolute necessity, it should be classed as a human right.
There is now a follow on article companion to this post, When Chatbots Replace Common Sense
This article is part of the British Democratic Alliance’s series on rebuilding Britain’s business ecosystem.
© British Democratic Alliance 2025