Ulster Bank to open on Saturdays

ULSTER BANK has said it is to open many of its branches on Saturday as part of a programme aimed at improving customer services.

The bank has said it will not close any of its 236 branches and has promised to strive to ensure customers wait less than five minutes when queuing in branches.

It said its performance in meeting 15 new customer commitments will be monitored by Deloitte and the results of the surveys will be publicly available.

“We’ve listened to thousands of consumers, taken on board their suggestions and responded with these commitments which we hope will begin to address many banking concerns,” said Mike Bamber, chief executive, retail markets.

“We are doing this because we recognise that banks need to change and we want to put the priorities of our customers at the heart of what we do.”

The bank said customers who called during our opening hours would always have the option of speaking to a real person, and that customers who are victims of fraud when banking online will be refunded, as long as they have followed the bank’s security requirements.

“We will continue to lend you money responsibly; however, if you do get into problems with debt we’ll help you to make realistic plans for dealing with it,” the bank said in a statement.

Another commitment concerns current account charges. “We can send you free text messages which will help you take action to reduce avoidable current account charges.”