The Sparkasse branch in Oakel will also have no more money beyond 2022. It is one of the six branches that will be completely shut by the end of this year. The locations of Fahrenhorst, Verel, Neubruchhausen, Nordwohld and Engeln will also become a thing of the past.
© Fabian Piper
Syke – Kreissparkasse Syke will close six branches at the end of the year. It is converting six other locations into pure self-service branches.
However, four of these branches will also be completely closed by the end of 2023. Jens Bretherig, chairman of Sparkasse’s management board, described the restructuring as “a powerful step forward for the future and competitiveness”.
Kreisparkse Psyche closes six branches
By 31 December this year, the branches of Ockel, Fahrenhorst, Verel, Neubruchhausen, Nordwald and Engeln will be a thing of the past. The locations at Bramstedt, Schwarme, Südwehe, Seekenhausen, Ernst-Boden-Platz in Psyche and Dorfstrae in Kirchwe will only have machines from 2022, but no more employees. The Ernst-Boden-Platz branch will also be completely closed at the end of 2022. A year later, Sparksey left locations in the Südwehe, Seckenhausen and the Dorfstrae in Kirchwe. More than 7,000 customers have been affected by the restructuring. About 35 of Sparksey’s employees will move to another job, but none will.
Kreissparkasse Establishes Corporate Customer Center
With the “realignment”, Kreisparkas is also bundling its advisory services for its approximately 6500 corporate and commercial clients, according to board member Olaf Meyer-Runnebohm. For them, the credit institution is setting up a corporate customer center “North” with Brinkham and Kirchwehe and location Psyche with “South” locations. There, teams of experienced advisors and experts cover the full range of advice for corporate loans from individual young entrepreneurs to mid-sized companies.
Breidrig and Meyer-Runbohm made no secret of the fact that like many other credit institutions, Crisparkse Psyche has had to admit “a significant drop in our core income” over the years – after all, “several million” per year. Also the cost has increased. For example, for necessary investments in digitization, among other things, or for salaries due to increased tariffs.
Cost pressures require branch structure restructuring and thinning
“To strengthen our equity, we have to keep making profits,” Brederig summed it up. Result: Transformation and thinning of the branch structure.
Kreissparkasse is more readily available than ever to its customers across all channels.
According to Meyer-Runbohm, Sparkasse has meanwhile notified all customers of the affected branches about the development by mail. After all, almost two-thirds of all customers now use online banking, “and Kreisparkas is more accessible than ever to its customers through all channels”.
Kreissparkasse Syke employs approximately 650 people.
With net assets of €4.05 billion, Sparkasse Psyche is one of the large savings banks in Lower Saxony. It employs about 650 people in the cities and communities of Syke, Stuhr, Weyhe, Bassum, Twistringen and Bruchhausen-Vilsen. Last year Sparkasse paid 10.6 million euros in taxes and distributed nearly a million euros through donations and sponsorships for the arts, culture, sport and the environment. And that, according to Breidrig and Meyer-Runbohm, “should remain that way if possible”.
The Kreissparkasse Grafschaft Diepholz had already implemented comparable restructuring measures over the years.
Pros and cons
Pro-Commentary by Hans Wilms
vote with your feet
At first glance, it may be anything but customer-friendly when Kreissparks Psyche withdraws from smaller towns such as Ockel, Fahrenhorst, Neubruchhausen or Nordwohled. But anyone who deals with the arguments of the Sparkasse management board will be able to understand the decision. Like all credit institutions, Kreissparkasse Syke is under tremendous pressure to function. Over the years, rising costs and steadily falling revenues-the board has had to respond.
The withdrawal from the region has certainly been mainly due to economic pressures. Basically, though, the customers themselves voted on it – with their feet. In smaller branches, visitor frequency recently averaged two customers per hour. However, most of them did not seek advice, they just wanted to withdraw money from the machine or take a print out of the bank statement. There is no need for qualified staff for this. From a purely legal standpoint, however, Sparkasse is forced to staff every branch with at least two employees.
About two-thirds of the more than 70,000 private customers do their business with Sparkasse via the Internet, and cash is now available at nearly every supermarket checkout—if it’s still used as a means of payment. Branch closure is nothing more than a logical consequence.
Contra-comment from Sigi Step
Onsite centers got weak
Kreisparkas Psyche’s decision to close six branches and reduce six other locations for ATMs to mere installation locations has outsized impacts in Ockel, Fahrenhorst, Verel, Neubruchhausen, Nordwald and Engeln that should not be underestimated. This undermines the vitality of the on-site centres. Anyone visiting a Sparkasse branch usually associates the trip with shopping or meeting people nearby.
So Sparkasse’s customers will soon have to accept longer distances. If you want to drive in one of the central locations, you put pressure on the climate. Without cars, people are left behind anyway because the public transport infrastructure is not yet developed enough to allow easy access to central places. It does not have to be a one day trip that requires you to take leave to serve at one of the 17 remaining branches.
At a time when digitization is on the rise and employees of credit institutions are working from home, the question of where their work is located doesn’t really matter, does it? So why centralize everything? Wouldn’t it be nice if some specialist, for example, handling particularly complex construction financing, were stationed at Fahrenhorst or Neubruchhausen? Anyone planning a large multi-family home such as a million dollar project with a penthouse is usually already across the street from the car. He may be happy that he finds a parking space in small sparksey spaces right away. In Syke you have to roam.
I am in favor of not missing the S-sign from small towns. There should be a place specific center. Normal counter business could then be done by a single machine. And for basic services, you can set specific days and times.
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