Provincial popular savings bank validates alternative to alleviate payments in Sancti Spíritus
Although pension payments are a priority for the banking system, power outages at branches often complicate the process. To alleviate this monthly stress, the Provincial popular savings bank (BPA) has designated its provincial headquarters last year to process these payments and provide other services.
Specific conditions have been established to transform the BPA Provincial Directorate’s headquarters into an alternative branch. Natali Pérez Valdés, director of the 12 Plantas Bank in Sancti Spíritus, explains: “We are working from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with all the pensioners. We set up two cubicles for the teller so they can process payments for each pensioner, and three tables for the commercial area so they can continue working. When we are not serving pensioners, we serve the general public.”
“We have designated the first three hours of the morning, exceptionally, to prioritize retirees. After those three hours, we alternate between regular customers and retirees so that everyone can complete their transactions, because we are affected by the power outages throughout the province.
From this branch, payments are facilitated for retirees according to the different groups. “We handle almost 100 transactions, 150 or 160. Each one is processed by three tellers daily, across the five retiree payment groups—six groups, because now with the new change that the groups are no longer based on a fixed salary scale but on birth year, we have six groups.”
Having a place to collect pensions and access other services during prolonged power outages makes BPA’s provincial management’s alternative a welcome relief from one of the biggest sources of daily stress in the country.
“So far everything is going very well, we have the whole team working, the managers are in charge of the hall, we also have a salesperson in charge of the hall, to go everyone to the benches, to the hall, to the benches, and the rest of us are outside and we go in to each retiree.”
