Branch customers continue disappearing act

Despite a significant drop in branch transactions, increased cost of processing and minimal improvement in productivity, the reduction in the number and size of bank branches has not kept pace.

by: W. Michael Scott, President and CEO, FMSI

Time and technology have a way of changing people, for better or worse. When things change for the better, it usually means something or someone is getting left out. Remember when cell phones became the next big thing? People laughed, but soon land lines were obnoxious and “old school”.

Or what about old analog TV, with the roof antenna versus cable’s offering of a few additional channels when it first came out? The major TV networks didn’t predict how the public would handle a slight variation in the shows available to watch. They thought they would rule forever … but they were wrong.

Likewise, in the not so distant past, the majority of the population was moaning about the hours of banks and credit unions. There’s no way the younger generation will remember this, but bank teller lines and drive-thru tellers were chock-full of account holders. Sometimes a single trip just to deposit a check or withdraw money for the coming week could take as much as thirty minutes or more!

Fast forward to today, and the entire banking scene has changed. At any given time, branches can be empty. Front-line employees appear to wait mindlessly behind their terminals, waiting to work. Something doesn’t seem right. How did the system go from not enough branches to way too many branches?

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