Banking is set for a revolution which will ’totally shape the future’ of the industry in the island, says the boss of Isle of Man Bank.

Stuart Chivers said 95% of the bank’s 450 staff in the island have been working from home over the last three months.

He believes many of those people will continue to stay away from their offices as things return to normal.

He said: ’I guess this will shape our future. We won’t all be going straight back to the office. I think we will permanently have a lot more colleagues being a bit more flexible with their work/life balance enabling them to work from home a couple of days a week or whatever they wish.

’It will totally shape the future of our industry.’

In an exclusive interview with Business News, Mr Chivers, country head for the Isle of Man Bank, denied that home working could be a ’back-door’ way of cutting back on staff in the future. He said: ’Our customer base has not gone anywhere.We still have to look after our customers.

’Quite a lot of colleagues find they are more productive working from home than in the office.’

He added: ’We are very keen to allow our staff to make decisions themselves and be more flexible in what they do rather than saying ’’We all attend the office between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday". ’

Asked what the last three months have been like he said: ’We are a purpose-led organisation and that purpose is to enable households, people and businesses to thrive.

’The last three months have really supported the methodology but it has also made us as a bank more agile than we have been historically.

’If you look at banking it has always been a traditional industry. Whilst nothing has changed in that sense we have been a lot more agile in what we have done.

’In the island we have 450 colleagues and with the exception of those individuals working in the three branches we have open, everyone else is working from home successfully.

’So for our colleagues it has been something of an emotional journey and it is something we are super-proud of, to ensure people have been fully operational from home.

It’s a testament to the quality of our staff with all the processes and procedures that we have in a very regulated industry.

’We’ve been able to maintain all of our regulatory compliance but by using technology in a better way we have been able to mobilise ourselves very quickly and serve our customers.’

We spoke through a Zoom meeting before Chief Minister Howard Quayle announced the ending of the two metres social distancing legislation from yesterday (Monday).

Mr Chivers was asked what were the prospects for the eventual reopening of the temporarily closed branches in Port Erin, Peel and Regent Street, Douglas.

He said: ’They are under constant review and we will be following government guidance but then also on top of that we will be looking at our own health and safety policy and procedures to ensure we can be comfortable when we do go back.’

Asked if he had received much feedback from customers regarding the closed branches he said: ’If you look at digital that gives an insight into how customers have been interacting with us.

’From a mobile app point of view we have had 1.9 million logins since May 1.

’We have 34,000 customers specifically in the Isle of Man using our digital banking, whether online or mobile .

’And very interestingly, over half of our 75 year olds are now using digital channels. I couldn’t have said that before Covid.

’That’s a brilliant number for us and I think it does prove our digital offering is easy to use. Even my parents are on it so that says something.’

Mr Chivers, who in a couple of weeks time, will have served 30 years with the Isle of Man Bank, having started his career in the Port Erin branch, said staff in the three branches that have remained open have been doing a great job and have been flexible helping customers.

These branches are Athol Street, Douglas, Parliament Square, Ramsey and Market Square, Castletown.

He said: ’We have had a bit of feedback from customers at the branches but a lot of work has been put in place to ensure customers can carry on with their daily lives.’

He confirmed a ’dramatic drop’ in the usage of cash machines.

Asked about help for people and businesses he said around 450 customers had been supported over capital repayments from their mortgages. There had been deferments for up to three months and these have now been extended to October 31 to help customers ’feeling the financial challenge of Covid’.

There had also been payment deferrals of personal loans and help over overdrafts.

More than 250 non-personal customers in the business world had also been helped.

Mr Chivers said: ’We are super-proud that we were very fast out of the blocks to support our customers.’

’We were the first bank to go public on the support of our customers and engaging with our customers.

’We have supported our customers, absolutely and we will continue to do so.’

As regards the economic situation is the island Mr Chivers believes the island will recover but he believes it is ’essential that our borders are reopened at some point’.

He added: ’We are in a very healthy situation at the moment with no new cases in the last three weeks .

He believes the island economy will be helped by being diverse rather than having all eggs in one basket.

Mr Chivers spoke to business news as he prepared to take his first holiday since last September.

He and his partner and their four year old twin daughters had originally booked to travel to Greece and obviously that was impossible.

Their break was going to include some ’staycation’ glamping in the island.

Mr Chivers said he was also looking forward to being able to eat out in restaurants.

He said that the coronavirus crisis was being regarded within the bank as a ’once in a hundred years incident’.