Driving license exchange and fishing license: Sparkasse surprises with new offers
Created: 01/11/2023 16:31
By: Vivian Werg
The banks' fight for survival: the savings bank is fighting with all means against the final farewell of its branches.
Now they are expanding their range of services.
Kassel – There are fewer and fewer Sparkasse branches in Germany.
The reason for this is that the locations have often been merged in recent years because it is no longer worthwhile to operate.
Annoying for the customers, because in the end they have less choice at the branches and sometimes have to travel longer distances.
Recently, the restriction of cash withdrawals from ATMs has already sparked discussion.
In order to counteract the negative trend, the German savings banks are developing new service offerings.
Sparkasse and cities work together and offer municipal services ranging from the extension of ID cards to the exchange of driving licenses.
Practical service: Savings banks now also exchange driver's licenses.
© Julian Stratenschulte/ dpa
The Sparkasse's new service aims to bring customers back to the branch
The savings banks' struggle for survival is behind the new services.
Nevertheless, it is quite practical for citizens.
The service is already being offered in Cologne.
As
CHIP
reports, there is not only everything to do with money at the Kölner Sparkasse, but official business can also be carried out in the rooms.
For example, applying for and extending your identity card and passport, as well as exchanging your driver's license.
All of this is made possible by the city's mobile citizen service.
If the new service is well received, it will be extended to other savings banks in Cologne.
Hamburger Sparkasse has been attempting the unusual merger of financial services and municipal services for years.
Even the fishing license is now available in a Hamburg branch.
"We help ensure that people from the surrounding area have short distances and support the city in making its service network even more closely meshed," says Birte Quitt, division manager at Hamburger Sparkasse.
New Sparkasse service counteracts branch deaths
German banks have been thinning out their branch network for years.
According to the Bundesbank, the number of branches has fallen in the past 20 years from more than 54,000 to around 21,700 most recently.
Joachim Wuermeling, member of the Board of Management of the Bundesbank, attributes this to increasing digitization.
"Ultimately, we experience the same thing in banks as we do in retail, in bookstores or in the music business."
Economic activity is increasingly shifting to the Internet.
The corona pandemic has accelerated the death of branches.
The Sparkasse's new range of services could be a pragmatic solution to counteract the dying of branches and continue to be there for customers.
(Vivian Werg)
