The Bank of Bhutan (BoB) launched ‘Senior Citizen Priority Counter’ across the country yesterday. This means all the BoB offices in the country will have dedicated counters to cater to senior citizens.
The Senior Citizen Priority Counter will provide all banking services except foreign exchange services to the elderly people. The banking services include withdrawal, deposit and opening of new accounts among others. Any individual aged 60 years and above will be eligible to avail themselves of banking services from Senior Citizen Priority Counter.
However, the counter will provide regular services to others clients when it is not catering to their senior clients. “When you grow old, you probably don’t have energy to stroll around the counters for monetary transaction and wait in queues. And also as a respect for our senior citizens, we came up with this initiative,” said the Chief Executive Officer of BoB, Pema N.Nadik.
CEO added that to identify clients as senior citizens, they will be issued with identification card by bank offices. “As soon as they show their senior citizen cards, the designated counter would give them preference over others.”
Senior citizens in Thimphu have welcomed the initiative. “Earlier, we had to wait in a queue with younger clients. To have a separate counter for us means to get services without having to wait,” said one of the elderly men, Andu Tshering.
Established in 1968, the BoB is Bhutan’s first bank. Apart from branch offices in the districts, its services are widespread at the community level as well.
