Ridiculous! Wasting money from the people who work hard to build a technology, that can't reach the one's who are truly endangered by the illness called Covid19. The old staff! The retired ones! Usually, they don't have a smartphone, and therefore can't be traced. What a well thought plan!
As we can see, the true virus is worldwide goverment stupidity. Spreads via television, radio, newspapers and the internet.
Is that true? Aren't there any banks at all at your place, that let you do your online banking properly on a computer? Without smartphones needed? I opened my bank account three years ago and it was still possible to open an offline account, which would have cost a bit more, because less things are automated. But the online banking is a proper thing without smartphones. If a smartphone would be required for online banking, I'd switch to an offline bank. Absolute No-Go.
Wait, I've thought a little bit about this. Actually, there is a root checking taking place on my bank account too. But it is send via SMS! Old technology, you know.
Therefore I can still use a Sony Ericsson from 2008. Drops into puddles, drops into toilets, drops on the floor, still operates. The battery in it lasts longer than these modern wipe-o-phones. And you can even exchange it (!!!), when it's broken. I, and only I as the user of the technology, will decide when to retire it! Not you, Apple and Google! Fortuneately alternatives like the finnish Jolla phone exist. A Sailfish OS device would be the only compromise I'd be willing to take.
(Edit: Excuse me, I misunderstood the term "root checking" as checking, where the the owner of the bank account is. So that the bank knows, where the root of the login came from. But no, it's checking if a phone was "rooted", improved by the user.)