CEO of FNB Points of Presence, Lee-Ann van Zyl, says branches in Warden, Winburg, Excelsior and Rouxville will close its doors. According to her Automated Deposit Tellers allowing customers to make cash deposits and withdrawals at a more cost effective rate than in-branch will remain in the affected towns. She says an FNB consultant will remain on site for a month after the closure of each branch to assist customers with transacting via the tellers. The community of Warden today took to the streets and protested against the closure of the branch in their town. An organiser, Henry Janse van Rensburg, said the closure of the FNB branch will have a negative effect on the economic growth of the town.

He says the whole community, including business owners, farmers, the elderly and residents of Izenzeleni, took part in the protest. A memorandum was handed to a representative of the bank.

According to Janse van Rensburg, clients are dissatisfied with the bank because there was no consultation process prior to the bank’s notice of closure early next month. He says business owners in the small town are concerned about their safety of tellers when they deposit large amounts of money. Churches will also be affected while the elderly are not well trained to use tellers and still prefer personal assistance.

He says people will now have to travel to towns like Bethlehem and Harrismith to make use of personal banking services as not everyone has access to online banking.
 
Van Zyl encourages customers to also make use of digital channels such as the FNB Banking App or Online Banking for most transactions they currently conduct in-branch.

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