STANDARD Chartered Bank has decided to close one of its oldest branches, the 60 year-old Bintulu branch.

News of the closure caught the branch’s six staff and local residents in this oil and gas town in northern Sarawak by surprise.

The branch was the town’s first bank and opened well before the discovery of gas offshore triggered its economic boom in the 1980s

It is slated to be closed by July next year.

The Sarawak Bank Employees’ Union (SBEU), working to protect the interests of the staff, said it regretted the decision to close the branch down just when the Sarawak government is embarking on an ambitious exercise of developing the state by 2030.

SBEU general secretary Law Kiat Min said there is no reason, at least economically, for the bank to close the branch.

Law said he believed Standard Chartered in Sarawak had achieved a profit exceeding RM1 billion for the past three years and is forecasted to be on track to achieve its targeted profit for this financial year.

“The six staff are not bleeding the bank. The branch is sustainable.”

Law said the closure is also not supporting the government’s objective of promoting the state’s industrial belt, known as the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy or Score, that is centred on the Samalaju Industrial Park.

“Standard Chartered has decided instead to desert and abandon its customers in Bintulu.

“The bank’s claim that customers can continue to enjoy the same level of service with internet banking is absurd as there is a great difference between being served by a machine, or online banking compared to being served by attentive staff.

Law said the biggest gripe of the staff is the voluntary separation scheme (VSS) the bank is offering them.

“The package is the worst ever and our request for the bank through the human resources department to improve the package has been arrogantly rejected.”

Law said the bank’s chief executive officer has also not responded to their letter.

He said the bank, in its annual VSS offer, gives a package of double basic salary and multiplying it with their years of service.

In this closure VSS, the six staff were offered only one and a half times their annual salary.

“Why such an offer? The bank should offer better since it is a closure.”

Law said the bank had given little consideration that these staff had served loyally, some more than 30 years.

“The most humane thing to do is to give them a decent exit package.

If the staff do not wish to take the VSS offer, the likely alternative is relocation to another branch, which means moving. – December 2, 2019.