The testimony from Nathalie on the RTL website has touched us in the BeLibre community. In many places, we heard and read indignation about the way these persons got handled. This story is about ING, but we notice a trend toward further digitalization and dehumanizing of consumer banking at multiple banks.

The move toward digital banking offers opportunities for convenience and innovation. The past decades have already proven this. Banking with the card reader has become commonplace, and for many, it has become unthinkable that you would still need to queue at the counter for a simple transfer. Yet thirty years ago there was also much protest when this concept was introduced. Are we being too conservative again, clinging too tightly to our established certainties?

That this convenience comes with risks, and that banks must therefore also innovate in cybersecurity, is not in question. Nobody wants to see their account plundered because a criminal hacker could log into your bank. The step toward smartphone authentication therefore seems logical and cost-saving. The cost of distributing those card readers will not be negligible. When we notice that 80% of users have already switched to the smartphone app, it even seems like pure waste to provide every customer with such a device.

Thirty years ago, it was essential to still help users at the counter who were less comfortable with computers. The small minority who still struggle with this digital transition today have quietly resigned themselves to reality. A neighbor, son, or social worker helps them through it. The embarrassment of having someone else help with your financial transactions, as well as the risk of abuse by these people, also weighs on these individuals. For some, the proverbial sock under the mattress became the ultimate solution. Quietly, the generation of digitally illiterate is dying out.

From BeLibre, we hope that banks will remember the previous change during the next transition. Once again, there are thousands of people, like Nathalie, who are confronted with new challenges. Once again, the risk of exclusion grows. With the historically low interest rates on checking and savings accounts, the sock will become an even more attractive alternative for more people. ING’s choice to make card readers less accessible and to work with mobile apps as standard raises a question: how do we ensure that modernization remains accessible to everyone? It is indeed possible to order the card reader online… but you have to actively search the website to find the order link. Moreover, have you used ItsMe at some point? Then multiple users reported that you lose the option to use a card reader.

So far, we have focused in this argument on the digitally vulnerable user. However, there is a second group of customers for whom this transition is a problem: the growing group of people who consciously choose not to use a (standard) smartphone. There’s Barbara, who gave up her smartphone after finally kicking her Facebook addiction. And then there’s Carl, who worries about Google and Apple, and is not willing to depend on the goodwill of American companies to determine what they can do and now also buy. Finally, there are those people who simply prefer a “dumb phone,” because the world is lonely enough already.

This also brings us seamlessly to the essential difference between the previous transition from counter to online banking and the current one from online banking to phone banking. By outsourcing authentication to Google and Apple, you delegate a core task of cybersecurity to companies over which you have no control. Moreover, you thereby perpetuate the monopoly of these players by effectively not supporting smaller players like Harmony OS, /e/OS, or Lineage OS. It doesn’t feel intellectually honest when you market this transition as an increase in security, while simultaneously losing a large part of control over security as a bank yourself.

To continue safeguarding the social role of banks and moreover ensure digital sovereignty, we want to call on banks to incorporate the following guidelines in their transition:

1. Anyone opening an account consistently receives a bank card with written communication. Explicitly include the offer to request a card reader. Provide alongside the regular URL to the form a QR code that pre-fills the fields (or better yet: provides a unique code that links this to the correct user on the server). (Yes, for this you need a smartphone very briefly, but this can be done by a friendly neighbor and is less confidential)
2. Also provide low-threshold access to counter staff at realistic hours
3. Raise awareness among staff about the existence of this digital divide and proactively offer low-tech and non-technological alternatives to the smartphone
4. Also support operating systems that safeguard the bank’s sovereignty within the European legal framework

Do you have negative experiences in this regard?

• Share this message with your bank and express your concerns
• Share this message on your social media
• Do you also have experiences? Share your story with us or on social media with #BeLibreBank
• Do you feel uncertain or unheard? Contact BeLibre with your testimony (jurgen@belibre.be) and we will collect testimonies and contact specific banks on your behalf

Do you have positive experiences regarding digital inclusion? Feel free to send an email to your bank to thank them for this. You also send a signal with positive messages.