Another Oasis

 In this week's Spectator, Charles Moore describes a strangely heartening visit to a branch of the Nationwide Building Society, where most of the customers presenting themselves were elderly and in some way or another bewildered by the complexities of modern banking. 'All,' writes Moore, 'were treated with respect and patience, lightened by unintrusive backchat. The atmosphere was peaceful and trusting...' This reminded me that I had written recently about such 'oases in an unhuman world'. My particular focus was on mobile phone shops, but what I did not mention was that my local bank branch is, incredible as it might seem, another such oasis.
  From sheer inertia, I have been with the same bank all my banking life – the one that likes to assure me that a kindly black horse has been with me every step of my life's journey. Until now my experiences with said bank have been variable, sometimes downright infuriating: on one occasion I was so bombarded with letters and phone calls urging me to come in and discuss my account with the branch manager that I eventually succumbed, assuming, reasonably enough, that they might have something useful to tell me. Having turned up at the appointed time and place, I was then told that the manager was at another branch nearby, to which, already far from gruntled, I made my way, only to be greeted by a twerp in a suit who clearly had no idea who I was or why I was there, and who greeted me with 'How are we today?' (yes, 'we'...) and 'What can I do for you?' By the time I left, I'm pretty sure he was reaching for the panic button. 
  But to my point. My present branch of this same bank could hardly be more different, with an atmosphere very much like that described by Moore. I've been in and out of this branch many a time, mostly to make payments to various 'trades' (having bought a house that turned out to be a capacious money pit), and have got to know most of the staff, who also know me and greet me cordially each time, with inquiries about progress on the house or observations based on my most recent employment (writing about TV). Though the pace is leisurely – precisely because of all that patience and respect and cordiality – it is actually a pleasure now to go to the bank, and I am more than ever resistant to the idea of switching to online banking. Where a bank has an actual branch, manned and open, banking is a human business. No doubt at head office they don't care about such things and think only of the bottom line, but I do hope that at least there will be no more branches closed. If the banks have got enough money for those glossy commercials – not to mention the huge profits they reap year after year – they surely have enough to do a little good in the world. In fact they owe it to us bewildered oldsters who have been giving them our money all our lives.