What role will bank branches play in 2022?

Banks have increasingly reexamined the role their branches play in their overall strategy. As a result, many have begun or are in the process of branch transformation efforts. Some are aiming to create a coffee shop-like experience with their branches where customers come to hang out and receive guidance on financial topics, whereas others are developing more advanced self-service solutions.

COVID-19 has only accelerated these trends as banks have had to deal with ever-changing regulations and circumstances. However, with 2022 upon us, we have to ask: what role will bank branches play in the new year? And what role will self-service solutions like ATMs play in these branches?

To gain some insight into this questions, ATM Marketplace spoke with William Budde, VP of product marketing at Hyosung America.

Q. When it comes to branches what role so you see them playing in 2022 and beyond?

A. Branches will continue to play an important role in fulfilling customer needs, but customer needs are changing. Customer usage of online and mobile banking capabilities and digital payment methods has increased their reliance on self-service; however, financial services can also be a complex topic for customers, and providing expert advice and counsel to customers in a personal, meaningful way is incredibly important for banks and credit unions. Branches will continue to be an important part of gaining and building customer trust through relationships with trusted advisors and experts.

Q. How must branches transform to meet changing customer expectations?

A. The proliferation of online banking has greatly expanded customer access to banking services, and has evolved into a "table stakes" expectation from customers of their banks for services that do not require some sort of physical fulfillment. The shared experience we have lived through for the past two years has had a significant impact on customer expectations for all businesses with which they interact — physical fulfillment has had to move beyond solely an in-person-only-during-business-hours possibility. Expanding self-service capabilities at branches, generally accessible around the clock through ATMs, provides both an efficiency improvement to the operation of the branch and also a way to meet this new customer expectation. Banks can then refocus their personal interaction spaces to be tailored to more complex customer conversations about their financial needs.

Q. What role will ATMs play in future branches?

A. ATMs and related self-service devices are already an integral part of branch operating models. As branches continue to evolve, the role of the ATM will continue to increase in importance. Integrating ATMs directly to the banking core opens up a variety of new capabilities, allowing ATMs and related self-service devices to become the primary transaction mode for in-person service at branches. These devices will not only be a customer front-end to process the transaction, but they will also accomplish many formerly manual tasks in an automated manner, removing much of the operational burden of transaction and cash processing from branch personnel.

More advanced capabilities, and the higher usage that comes with it, creates a greater need for management tools and capabilities to ensure that the network of devices is operating optimally. We are seeing more sophisticated remote management and diagnostic services emerge in the form of Managed Services offerings that help ensure that ATMs stay up-to-date, available, and secure.

Q. Can you share some about work you are doing in this space in terms of product strategy?

A. We spend a lot of time and energy working to continually advance the capabilities of our overall offering, and branch transformation is a key area where we strive to push the envelope. We consistently lead the market in cash recycling technology, and have now developed a software platform that monitors cash usage at every device in real time, providing detailed insight into the cash needs of a financial institution's entire network and enabling better, more efficient decisions on operating that network. We are also developing new hardware and software capabilities we expect to bring to market in early 2022 that enable our TCRs, ATMs and other self-service devices to work together more cohesively while eliminating even more manual steps in the cash management cycle, especially related to the movement of cash from one device to another.

Q. How will ATMs look different in 2022 and beyond?

A. Traditionally, ATM development has centered on the engineering, and the utility of the capabilities delivered. There has been a significant increase in focus recently on the overall customer experience when it comes to financial self-service devices. This is true for traditional form-factor ATMs, like drive-up or through-the-wall ATMs, or newer form factors like lobby units such as ITMs or kiosks. We are starting to see ATMs that are designed not just for the utility, but also for the experience — intuitiveness, accessibility, ease of use. This user experience will also come with a more modern look and feel that is more in line with the modern devices, like tablets and smart TVs, that customers interact with on a day to day basis. Additionally, we've already started to see banks integrate capabilities on their ATMs, such as pre-staging transactions, into their mobile apps. As those integrations become more sophisticated and enable more of the ATM functionality, we'll see form factors continue to evolve to work as a direct extension of mobile and online banking, bridging the gap between digital and physical banking needs.