IT seems every time you pick up a newspaper these days some well- known company has been the subject of a takeover bid.

There are the usual promise that there will be no loss of jobs, even though it is admitted that the reason for the takeover was a "rationalisation of costs", which is another name for the politically correct 'downsizing'. This in turn means people are going to lose their jobs, whatever the newspaper report tells us.

One of the sectors where massive amalgamations are taking place is the banking and building society world. These are supposed to cut the costs of allowing the banks to look after your money and thereby give you more value for money. But what is actually happening is a gradual erosion of the service that we have traditionally come to expect from the guardians of our wealth, however meagre.

The time when you could ring up and actually talk to your bank manager is long gone, even assuming you know his name. To get advice these days, you are referred to your 'personal banker', who is likely to look younger than your grandchildren.

They are probably very efficient and capable, but you may not wish to share your confidences with them. What is even more worrying is the continual shutting down of the small bank branches, making it very difficult for older people to carry out their financial business.

Not everyone wants to use the hole in the wall for getting money out or finding out their balance. Many older people are nervous of being robbed and it is a very public way of doing one's business. Should we simply dismiss those worries as being unrealistic? No, we should not.

Apart from the personal considerations, the loss of a bank or building society in a row of small shops can often sound the death knell for the local traders. It means they have to travel to a bank elsewhere to get change or pay in their takings.

For many elderly people it is the loss of a service which sees their pension paid out, their bills paid in, and can be yet one more difficulty for them to overcome.

It means, in many cases, added travelling costs merely to get at their own money. It is estimated that over the next five years as many as a third of bank branches will close. The advice given by the British Bankers' Association is cynical in the extreme.

"Shift to telephone banking, use the Internet facilities, use the post offices, or the hole in the wall (for which you may be charged if the only bank available to you is not the one at which you bank!)."

A fat lot of help there for the elderly!

There is now an all-party group of MPs looking at the impact of the loss of local facilities. Don't forget, the 'grey vote' is a very large group, so if you feel strongly about the loss of your local branch or post office, write to your MP. That is what MPs are for - to relay your worries to those in charge.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.