For last many decades, branch banks have been the front-line of the customer's relationship with the bank. As more and more customers embrace e-channels, it is challenging for banks to stay profitable with their current model. Customers’ branch visits have decreased over the past decade as more financial transactions migrate from branch to mobile, online and self-service channels. Banks are inventing new ways to cater to their customers. As customers rapidly adopt online modes of banking, branches will struggle to stay relevant. Undoubtedly, branches offer comfort, friendly and face-to-face customer interactions that online channels cannot replicate adequately. Even today, most customers still prefer in-person consultation for major financial decisions such as loans, mortgages and investments.

Cost pressures and reduced transaction based revenue will cause branches to downsize and become leaner. This will lead to branches to reinvent into three distinct formats - the pocket branch or the mobile phone, the skinny branch which would be a small footprint branch staffed with minimal number of employees using extensive automation points and full service branches. Traditional transactional engagements involving a teller will rapidly shift to more automation and self-service technologies. Branch banks of the future will focus less on transaction-oriented business and more toward sales, service and consultancy. The teller would now be involved in an advisory or consultative approach, predominantly driving more sales. The bank branch will have a retail centric ambience with innovative lobby designs and technologies. The technology will stimulate customer engagement with employees and the role of the teller will shift from transaction to an advisory role.

At Aurion pro, we believe the landscape of retail banking will rapidly change over the next decade. Economics, technology, digital adoption and customer demand are pushing banking rapidly into an Omnichannel age. Branch networks will become customized and in many cases, traditional branches will be replaced with leaner and smart self-service branches. The current channel silos and fragmented experience will be replaced by an integrated Omnichannel Experience.

Migrating the front line operations to reduce the total cost of operation will open up new opportunities for the FinTech players. Our vision for tomorrow’s Omni channel banks adds up to a reinvention of retail banking and the cornerstone of our offering is the ACE Platform. ACE platform is a high-performance low latency middle ware from Aurion pro that can help organizations deliver innovative digital experiences. The API-centric architecture provides a set of out of the box functionalities, which can be extended to individual requirements that are all woven within the rich tapestry of HTML5 driven interfaces, creating a consistent experience for your end customers. Built on open standards, ACE can be augmented by best of breed businesses and social intelligence tools infusing real-time analytics and contextual intelligence about your customers. It provides seamless handover across all channels while maintaining data integrity and provides deep-rooted customer insight and analytics. ACE is the most comprehensive platform to rapidly deploy omni channel solutions across a wide range of industries like Banking, Telecom or Retail. It comprises of a series of plug in modules and an array of customizable modules that help customers to market faster with stable, secure and feature-rich multi-channel applications that are easy to use and support your business objectives while providing revenue enhancing opportunities.

The biggest differentiator in the bank of the future will be the professionalism and knowledge exhibited by the frontline staff of the branch

Aurion pro recently launched Virtual Teller Machine in India. It has the potential to automate more than 90 percent of the banking transactions like account opening, card issuance, bill payment, cash deposit,cheque deposit, statement printing, passbook printing, and video conferencing to self-service kiosk. The Virtual Teller Machine powered by Aurion pro’s API based ACE platform, can quickly connect bank’s legacy applications to a digital core enabling a seamless orchestration of the customer journey across multiple touch points.

In the foreseeable future, banks will add more automation points within their retail branches to create cost- effective retail centric banking operations. Undoubtedly the biggest differentiator in the bank of the future will be the professionalism and knowledge exhibited by the frontline staff of the branch. Since the role of the teller will be diminished, the frontline is expected to have a more consultative approach. Self-service kiosks will now become an integral part of the business handling a variety of transactions like cash and cheque deposit automation, loan disbursement besides routing banking transactions like account enquiry, statement printing and bill payment services. The account opening and card issuance processes can be completely automated and the entire process will be completed in just few minutes. The kiosks will provide personalized video conferencing sessions thereby helping the bank to reach out far-flung locations which are economically unviable to run a traditional branch.

In the coming years branch banking will witness a paradigm shift in the routine banking operations. With increasing adaptability shown by the Gen Y towards technology, the future of branch banking is about to change. The focus will be on delivering immersive customer experience at less operational cost. Banks will become more sophisticated in the use of technology to increase the kinds of services offered to their customers and improve their branches’ efficiency. The majority of the transactions will move to self-service and the role of the tellers will be more advisory and less transactional in nature, thereby making the branch banking leaner and smarter.