Banks reducing staff on helplines

[LahoreEstate]

By Nauman Tasleem

LAHORE: A number of banks have reduced 20 to 40 percent staff on telephone helplines while a few have also closed their toll free numbers to overcome financial burden at the cost of its customers, sources in the banking industry told Daily Times on Friday.

They said the banks are cutting their running costs in order to overcome the financial problems. The banks have already downsized in January this year and overall 30 percent staff were asked to leave. However, it was not enough and therefore the banks administration decided to slash staff over helplines.

The banking sector has been facing the music as the non-performing loans have increased and according to the central bank the NPLs by the end of March 2009 amounted to Rs 379 billion against Rs 325 billion as of December 2008.

“Where there were 20 to 30 customer relation officers serving on helplines, we now have 15 to 18 persons,” said Abdul Manan a customer relation officer of the bank adding the banks are also encouraging its customers to get TPIN (telephonic password and code) for operating their accounts.

“With a TPIN, the customers can operate/enquire about his/her account and there is no need of online banker,” he informed. He said the bank has given them instruction to ask the customer to get TPIN for phone banking “The customers don’t need help of any online banker if he/she had TPIN,” he said adding it also reduces burden on the online bankers. However, a large number of customers don’t have TPIN and have to contact online banker for inquiry and due to less staff he has to wait for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

The banking industry witnessed a boom from 2002 to 2007 with high profits. However, with financial crunch all over the world in 2008, the banks slashed their staff.

Toll free numbers: The banks are also shifting their toll free numbers to ordinary phone lines. In toll free number, the caller does not have to pay for the dialled call and the bank pays for the call. The toll free number is not expensive to get but its operational cost was high. Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) spokesman said installation cost of toll free number is around Rs 7,000 while call charges during peak hours (8am to 8pm) is Rs two for two minutes and during off-peak hours (8pm to 8am) Rs 2 for four minutes.

Average bill of toll free help line varies between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 per month. Though it is a petty amount for the banks but how about saving it at the cost of the customers, said a bank customer. Now the customers calling at toll free help line are informed to contact new number and the customer would pay calling cost.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg5_2