• Luke Graham , MP at Ochil & South Perthshire


• 01.11.2018 06:30 am
undisclosed

Access to financial services, particularly for rural communities, is a lifeline. Critical to this lifeline are not just bank branches but also ATMs. Branches and ATMs don’t just give out cash, they keep communities together, providing a crucial relationship between banks and their customers. The financial services industry has a responsibility to deliver choice to all customers regardless of how they want to access services, where they’re based or their net worth. Technology must make things better, not reduce choice and opportunity.

We know that banks are under increasing pressure to shrink their networks, but we risk cutting too much and ending up with a situation that is difficult to reverse. Branch networks may get smaller, but we need to make the ones that remain smarter. There are lots of options that banks evaluating their networks should consider.

White label financial hubs

Currently, branch infrastructure is perceived to be  a significant cost burden for banks. One solution is the sharing of branches, or ‘white label financial hubs’. This would let a customer of any banking brand enter a local hub, identify themselves as a customer of a specific bank brand and use self-service machines to get their personal branch banking experience and access to a range of branch banking services they are used to.

Expansion of third-party ATM ownership and self-service offerings

We need to stop thinking of ATMs as cash dispensers. A modern generation of ATMs can carry out a range of banking functions – from cash deposits to mortgage applications. In smaller communities this could help banks bridge the gap between no services at all, and a costly bank branch.