The importance of branch banking in the era of digital technology

The aim of this book is to analyse whether digital technologies such as online and mobile banking on one side and traditional ones such as bank branches on the other can co-exist and co-operate. The era of digital technology has enabled the customers to conduct their transactions from home which was not possible before without visiting a branch. All this gives an entirely new vision of how a bank branch should look and how to fulfil customer needs in the most efficient way. Customer's use of online and mobile banking services has grown rapidly, especially in this century. With the improved convenience of these channels, customers do not need to visit branches as often as before. These channels have various advantages. For instance, the cost of a branch transaction is 30 times higher than that of a mobile or online transaction. Also, branch staffing levels have been reduced. However, when the customers are conducting some complex transactions or need to discuss complex issues or transactions for which they need a more detailed explanation, they tend to prefer to do it in person – directly in the bank branch.