Standard Bank recently announced it would be closing 91 branches and retrenching up to 1,200 staff. This was a sad day for a country riddled with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.
Clearly, though, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is on our doorstep and it is starting to manifest in the form of banks re-assessing the viability of their branch networks. Brick-and-mortar is more expensive than technology-based banking. Branches will then be used in the future primarily as a means-to-migrate where customers can consult bankers on the workings of bank products, only to eventually migrate to technology-based applications. The branch will therefore take on an entirely new role in the future.
Branches will still exist, but will not be as we know them today. Rather, they will be smaller, have less staff, and offer digital-based functionality. This environment addresses our human desire to interact with a person, but still re-enforces digital transaction platforms. Reducing the number of branches and thus the staff complement is the logical next alternative. The way banks deal with this inevitability, however, raises opportunities for scathing attacks on the business models they adopt due to the potential job losses.
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