Creating smart and secure branches to deliver personalized customer experience

The impact of COVID-19 on banking has been wide and varied. For instance, the crisis has exposed inadequacies in branch banking operations such as difficulties in complying with social distancing norms and delivering ‘low touch’ or ‘zero touch’ experiences. Given that branches are still the preferred channel for complex banking activities and COVID restrictions may become somewhat permanent, at least in the short to medium term, banks need to shift to ‘smart banking’ to deliver a safe branch banking experience.

Addressing the COVID impact on branch banking will require banks to reimagine branches to accommodate social distancing restrictions and create safe banking facilities. To achieve this, banks must

• Design a resilient, adaptable and purpose-driven branch banking model

• Adopt technology solutions to create safe interaction platforms in branches

• Explore the ecosystem model to deliver beyond banking services