As digitalisation sweeps the banking world, the question of what role the branch will play in the future of the industry, if any, is still being hotly debated. The RBR Branch Transformation Conference offered up a whole host of concepts, from drive-thrus to specialist meetings conducted virtually from your sofa writes Alexander Atkins
This year’s conference in London, hosted by Retail Banking Research (RBR), featured speakers and presentations from financial organisations hailing from a range of countries around the globe, among them well-known names such as Santander, Banco BIC, Cardtronics, Global Solutions and many more.
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The pop-up branch
UniCredit’s answer to the pop-up branch was tested with eleven installations in Austria and Italy, most notably at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Here, the pop-up branch showed its real potential in two ways: firstly, festival organisers had previously complained that due to a high volume of people, it was difficult to find or utilise an ATM, so the pop-up Branch could be manoeuvred into a traffic choked area.
Secondly, it achieved a large commercial impact with a high lead generation, creating on average 65 new prospects per day. With the success of the prototypes, UniCredit hope’s that they can expand the functions of the pop-up branch to include non-banking services such as financial education, urban data generation and community engagement. However, it admits that for the foreseeable future, it won’t be the predominant branch mechanism but that it has the potential to emerge into a flourishing concept.
So what is it? In a nutshell, seven square meters of mobile space providing advisory services, an ATM and two or three staff on hand, with the aim of being highly flexible and mobile, to appear anywhere at any time.
Klaus Sandbiller, head of real estate global projects, who helped with the idea, said they had to be innovative and unique with a low cost implementation, be flexible and adaptable, easy to handle, sustainable, and have the ability to attract and engage customers.
Jack Henry and Associates’ speaker, Jason Schwabline, senior manager for global product and strategy, talked about the branch tools of the future and the ways they must evolve. He was adamant that the aims of future bank branches should be to enable choice, enable automation, enable the consumer and acquire the transaction as early on in the process as possible.
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By GlobalDataBut the game changer, as he put it, lay in two areas: assisted self-service transaction and field or remote banker transaction. Most importantly was needed the ability to centralise all services and processes under one roof, whilst silos ‘would be the death of the financial industry’ and needed to go.
Asked if he thought if branches would ever disappear completely, Schwabline responded: "Never. Some form of branch will always be around because the human interaction can never disappear totally, it may become less frequent but because of an inherent need for trust, interaction has to exist."
He went on to explain how powerful remote banking could be. "You can have someone at the edge of the Andes, in the rainforest, but as long as they have a mobile, they have an environment in which they can bank", said Schwabline.
Postbank, represented by Ioannis Serafeimidis, head of retail banking for Postbank in Bulgaria, was showcasing its new idea of Retail Lending Centres within branches. As Serfeimidis explained, the idea is to create excellence hotspots by pooling the best talent and resources into the branches most likely to make the biggest impact. These centres would also be places where the best senior employees could mentor the best new talent in a ‘real life work experience situation but with a safety net.’
Drive-thru banking
Fifth Third Bank, based in Ohio, showcased a presentation on how technology allowed the bank to engage with their customers differently. Kevin Sullivan, Managing Director for distribution strategy at Fifth Third, explained that customers want to interact with banks when, where and however they liked. He said "If people are becoming comfortable with assisted self-service in airports or shops, surely they can get comfortable with branch self-service."
The result was a piloted new branch format in 2013, with the aim to migrate customers to multi-vendor ‘smart ATMs’ that would enhance the multi-channel customer experience. The ATMs also have built-in video capability so customers can talk to out-of-branch specialists.
Their branches today don’t offer teller lines but instead present three options: a full service manned kiosk, an assisted self-service smart ATM with video option, and a self-service smart ATM, with a ‘drive through’ style smart ATM option also being considered.
But Fifth Third wants to go even more digital. Sullivan continued, "We want customers to have the option to go online at home, to have a voice chat or a video meeting with the universal banker and to talk to a specialist without even having to go to the bank." So far, it’s been relatively successful without the need for large scale layoffs, says Sullivan.
In between the talks were the booths showcasing even more equipment and ideas. From new money managers and coin systems to card replacement kiosks, there was certainly something for everyone. The options were numerous and the presentations raised some important ideas about not only what the branch of the future should be, but what it should do, how it should look and where its main place in the entire industry would be.
The only certainty that emerged from the whole conference was that the traditional branch and its traditional functions were no longer feasible with a world where consumers wanted more options when, where and however they liked. Just as with every antiquated idea, its heyday has passed. The only question now, as the conference pitched, is what route do we go down next?
