For Wibo, online banking was too difficult, now he helps to improve the app

As a child, Wibo struggled at school and preferred to ditch the classroom in favour of long days by the sea. “I was born in Curaçao, and our house was just a stone's throw from the seaside. As a young boy, I loved swimming. I much preferred being by the sea than at school,” he laughs. “When it was my turn to read out loud, I never knew where we were. That made me insecure, so I would do all sorts of things to get out of it. For instance, I’d throw my shoes onto the roof of our house when it was time to go to school, hoping I wouldn’t have to go,” Wibo remembers. “The teachers just let it happen and didn’t pay much attention to me. But with each school day I missed, I fell further behind. As a result, I never learned all the letters of the alphabet. After I’d had to repeat two school years, my father, who was a fisherman, decided that I should join him on the boat. I come from a family with eleven children and had to help put food on the table. At first I was thrilled, because I loved the sea. But when I turned eighteen, I regretted not having learned anything. I was my father's helper, and he could be pretty hard on me at times. My mother decided I should find work on the island, so I started working in a workshop.”

'I’m living proof that you’re never too old to learn'

Four years later, Wibo emigrated to the Netherlands. “I was 22 when I went to live in The Hague. After that I moved to Den Helder and joined the navy. I slogged like mad there for twenty years. When you can’t read or write, you work extra hard to keep your job.” In 2011, Wibo was declared unfit for work following a hernia operation. “I entered a reintegration programme with the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency UWV and was offered a computer course. When they noticed I hit a wall because I couldn’t read, they suggested I go back to school. So at the age of 57, I decided to start all over again and attended a school for people with a low level of literacy.” This was a major turning point in Wibo’s life. “I realised I wasn’t alone. One of my classmates, a farmer’s son, had had to work from a young age, like me, and had never gone to school. I often used to feel lonely, as if I were in a dark tunnel. Learning to read and write showed me the light at the end of that tunnel and I started to believe in myself again.” Now Wibo uses his experiences to help others, for example by providing information sessions to people in the same situation. “I want to encourage people to go back to school. I tell them, ‘Open the curtains and look outside: the world is so much bigger’. I’m living proof that you’re never too old to learn.”

Support with digital banking

ABN AMRO is collaborating with Stichting ABC to explore how we can make digital banking more accessible. For clients like Wibo, digital tools sometimes pose an additional barrier. “As a client, I took part in a test to see how the bank could improve financial accessibility. I also learned a lot from this experience myself,” says Wibo. He can now navigate the banking app with ease. “The fewer steps you have to do, the better. It’s great that the texts in the app are short and easy to read, and that it’s easy to find important information. I’ve also discovered many useful features, allowing me to manage all my banking matters quickly and easily.”

Gudy van der Wal-Verbruggen, Director of Financial Accessibility at ABN AMRO, explains that the bank does a lot to help people with poor literacy skills in other ways as well. “We want to ensure there’s a way for everyone to do their banking. This can be digitally using the ABN AMRO app and internet banking, or with the support of one of our two hundred Help with Banking Advisers through video banking, by phone, or at the client’s home.” ABN AMRO also offers support in various other ways. Gudy continues: “Our website offers many how-to videos to help people with online banking. We also organise monthly courses and have created simple manuals. We have many tips and solutions that can help people who may find it difficult to understand things. In this way, the bank aims to be there for all our clients and always stay close to them.”

Wibo's tips

These are Wibo's tips with useful features that can give low-literate people a helping hand:

• Secure calling from the ABN AMRO app

• The TalkBack or voiceover feature in the ABN AMRO app (Dutch only)

• Help videos explaining step-by-step how to do your daily banking online