PHYGITAL
Revival: A new appetite for financial advice could breathe life into bank branches
SIGNS OF LIFE
Do legacy banks need to fall into step with many of their challenger rivals by moving to an entirely branchless business model in an increasingly digital industry?
No way, says Richard Benson, creative managing director of global consultancy firm Allen International, which facilitates branch transformation from initial customer strategy through to design and digital solutions. He argues that human interaction must remain a key component of what will admittedly be super-high tech branches of the future. That view, of course, might seem to be something of a paradox in an omnichannel world where an ever-increasing majority of people go online for their day-to-day banking needs and traditional banks have responded with wholesale branch closures. Indeed, in the UK alone, according to Financial Conduct Authority figures, the number of branches has fallen from more than 20,000 in the late 1980s, to fewer than half that today, with the rate
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TheFintechMagazine | Issue 14
A fresh focus on value-added customer service is seeing a dramatic rebirth of branch banking, says Richard Benson of Allen International
South America to Europe and North America, and Asia as well. I think what we’re seeing is more organisations grappling with the role of the branch, and trialling different things, each with different nuances depending on their culture and needs.”
of closures accelerating since 2012 as banks respond to ever falling footfalls.
F2F on the rise
Dramatic evolution But Benson argues that times they are a-changing and, in an ever-more crowded marketplace, legacy banks, and others, are waking up to the fact that they need to better engage with their customers, which means radically altering what their branches offer, including where they are located and even what times they are open. “We’ve been working with banks and retailers for about 28 years, but in the last couple of years we’ve seen more transformation than ever around the world,” he says. “And it’s not just in one area. We’re seeing it all the way from
But the real kingpin among that transformation, according to Benson, is the realisation of the still-vital need for face-to-face contact. “As with all retail, we can do things much more conveniently ourselves online. We carry the brands in our pockets and we do it much more quickly through the mobile,” he says. “What we’re witnessing, though, is that people demand more advice and more rounded human interaction, and that’s what they are coming to the branches for. They can do their transactions, the kind of mundane banking, really efficiently online. But in this age of many channels that people can use, sometimes just speaking www.fintech.finance