Source: China Banking Association.
Cartography: Wang Zheping
Zhang Jie, a 26-year-old Beijing citizen, recently went to a bank outlet to do business and found that the outlet downstairs of the company had closed down. "Take the subway to work in the morning, and you can enter the station by scanning the code with the mobile APP bound to the bank card. Shopping can be paid by online banking, and credit card repayment is also through the mobile banking APP. Now I am used to online financial services, and there are fewer and fewer banks. Although there are fewer outlets around me, it has not brought any inconvenience. " Zhang Wei said.
In recent years, banks have accelerated the development of online business, and the business volume of online banking and mobile banking has increased rapidly. According to the latest data released by China Banking Association, online banking transactions of banking financial institutions reached 163.784 billion last year, up 7.42% year-on-year, and mobile banking transactions reached 121.451 billion, up 38.88% year-on-year. At the same time, many people have found that the number of bank outlets around them has increased.
Under the trend that people are increasingly favoring online financial services, where is the value of offline banking outlets? How to realize the transformation and development of outlets and improve service quality and efficiency? The reporter conducted an investigation and interview.
Are bank outlets still important?
Bank outlets still play an important role in serving specific people and regions and handling non-standardized business.
Why has the situation of bank outlets closed increased? According to several bank managers, more and more consumers like online banking, mobile banking and other online channels, and the proportion of businesses that need to go to the counters of bank outlets is gradually decreasing. The abolition of outlets is mainly due to the lack of customers and low efficiency.
In terms of the total amount, by the end of 2019, the total number of outlets of banking financial institutions had reached 228,000, and the number of outlets actually abolished this year only accounted for a small proportion. To meet people’s diversified financial service needs, bank outlets still play an irreplaceable role.
Uncle Lu, who lives in Shifosi Village, Yufa Town, Daxing District, Beijing, is over 80 years old and wants to deposit a sum of savings on a regular basis. How many years of products do you have? What is the interest rate? How much interest is it every year? With full of questions, he came to Daxing Xinhangcheng Sub-branch of Ping An Bank not far from home.
After understanding Uncle Lu’s needs, the bank staff answered his questions one by one, figured out the fixed interest rate of each file and how much interest he could get each year, listed it in a table, and then explained it in detail.
While listening to the explanation and looking at the form, Uncle Lu chose a time deposit that suits him. "You’d better make it clear, but I can’t figure it out myself." Uncle Lu was very happy. "Moreover, I am old, and it is inconvenient to save money with the self-service deposit and withdrawal machine. With the assistance of the staff at the outlets, I am much more practical."
Aunt Hai runs a small shop in Yabao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. Every month, she goes to the bank outlets to handle business such as change. "Many customers choose to pay in cash. If there is more or less change, they must go to the outlets to exchange it."
Sun Anqin, vice president of Ping An Bank Beijing Branch, said that from the perspective of clients, for some elderly people who are not suitable for online banking or other customers who are not good at or willing to do business online, banks can provide them with more thoughtful services by relying on physical outlets.
From the perspective of business types, offline outlets still play an irreplaceable role in some non-standardized businesses. "For example, for the service needs of private bank customers’ financial consulting, financial managers need to communicate with customers face to face to meet their differentiated and personalized needs. In addition, due to regulatory requirements and risk prevention needs, bank card opening and enterprise opening bank accounts must also be handled at bank outlets. " Shen Chunhua, general manager of the channel management department of China Everbright Bank, said.
"In the past, bank outlets provided customers with a large number of transactional financial services. With the development of online channels and self-service channels, the transaction attributes of outlets have been gradually replaced, and now customers mainly come to outlets because of complex transactions and complex needs. The service of bank outlets is more intuitive, flexible, humanized and professional, and it is still the main channel for banks to sell products and maintain customers. " Wang Haiquan, general manager of the Channel and Operation Management Department of Bank of China, said that in recent years, the average number of customers served by outlets throughout the Bank has stabilized at around 200 million, indicating that outlets still play an important role.
From the perspective of regional layout, the coverage of bank outlets is still increasing in areas with weak financial services such as "agriculture, rural areas and farmers". By the end of 2019, banking financial institutions had covered basic financial services to 166,300 administrative villages in 832 key poverty alleviation and development counties through institutional outlets, machine services and mobile services, with a coverage rate of 99.3%.
Ceng Gang, deputy director of the National Finance and Development Laboratory of China Academy of Social Sciences, said that the sinking of bank outlets to the grassroots level has made up for the financial shortcomings in rural areas and can play a positive social benefit. At the same time, with the economic development in rural areas, the demand for financial services is increasing, and there is huge room for development in inclusive finance, and banks themselves will also reap good economic benefits.
How to better transform and develop?
Many banks are actively exploring in improving service efficiency, expanding service content and changing service methods.
People in the industry generally believe that in the future, bank outlets will still occupy an important position in people’s lives, and banks will also rationally adjust the layout of outlets according to actual operating conditions and local service needs. China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission clearly pointed out that banking financial institutions should fully investigate the financial market structure, supply and demand of financial services in the new and original locations before changing their business premises, so as to avoid creating a financial service gap.
How should bank outlets be transformed? The reporter learned from the investigation that many banks are actively exploring ways to improve service efficiency, expand service content and change service methods.
Intelligent, with higher service quality and efficiency — —
It used to be a very complicated thing for enterprises to open bank accounts. Prepare a lot of materials, queue up at the bank, fill out a lot of forms, and stamp a lot of official seals … … It often takes a whole day. The research and development of Sunshine E account opening system of China Everbright Bank was launched, which helped customers solve these troubles.
"Online booking application for account opening, filling in the industrial and commercial data system, and electronicizing the seal are optimized, which greatly saves the time for account opening." Sun Jihua, the financial controller of a company, said that it took only 40 minutes from entering the bank to opening an account, "much faster than I expected".
In recent years, the intelligent transformation of bank outlets is in full swing. You can withdraw money with your mobile phone without a bank card; The whole money and change can be stored together, and self-service equipment can also be handled; Bank card can realize fast card exchange with the same number & HELIP; … A variety of intelligent services constantly improve the customer experience of bank outlets. The insiders believe that making full use of scientific and technological means, developing intelligent equipment and tools, and upgrading offline outlets will improve the service efficiency and quality of outlets.
At the same time, the machine replaces the manual to complete some tedious processes, which is conducive to allowing more staff to walk out of the counter and provide accurate services according to the differentiated needs of customers.
Integrated and diversified services are introduced — —
While promoting intelligence, bank outlets are also paying attention to integrating into demand scenarios, expanding service content and giving full play to service functions.
"China Everbright Bank actively promotes the comprehensive transformation of banking outlets, giving outlets cultural services, tourism consultation, health management and other functions." Shen Chunhua said that Guangzhou Yuexiu Sub-branch of China Everbright Bank, as the host bank of medical insurance business in Guangzhou, has an average daily passenger flow of about 500 people, much higher than the average level of the whole bank. At present, the branch serves more than 10 million medical insurance customers.
Bank of China Guangzhou Lujiang Sub-branch cooperates with the local library to open a special reading area at the outlets, and books can be borrowed and returned at the outlets. In Jie Fangbei Business District, a tourist hotspot in Chongqing, Ping An Bank Chongqing Jie Fangbei Sub-branch has launched cultural and creative products, and will also introduce reading corners. Some rural bank outlets can also provide express delivery and other services.
"In the future, the spare space of outlets can be diversified and transformed into a place for customers to consult and exchange, share learning, share office, and carry out community activities." Wang Haiquan said.
Be more proactive, and banking services will go out — —
Not long ago, the Chinese Business School of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics ushered in the opening season. The staff of China Bank Guangdong Zengcheng Sub-branch took five mobile smart counters to the school to provide on-site financial services for teachers and students. Teacher Huang of the school said that in the past, card opening and mobile banking had to be handled at bank outlets, but now the bank provides on-site service, which can be completed in just a few minutes.
"With technical support, banking service equipment is more intelligent and portable, and it is possible to take it out, so that customers can enjoy more convenient financial services." Wang Haiquan said.
In order to let people in mountainous areas enjoy more adequate financial services, Fujian has explored the "backpack bank" business model. "Bank account managers carry backpacks, install equipment into the village, and promote financial services door to door." The person in charge of the Fuzhou Central Branch of the People’s Bank of China said that the "backpack bank" sent loans to the countryside and sent funds "timely rain" to the people.
How to collaborate online and offline?
The advantages of online business and offline outlets are complementary and integrated, and the efficiency of financial services is continuously improved.
For banks, it is an important problem to deal with the relationship between online and offline business. Ceng Gang believes that the rapid development of online business will not replace the important role of bank outlets. In the future, online business and offline outlets will complement each other and develop together to continuously improve the efficiency of financial services.
Online and offline collaborative development can make business handling more convenient.
In the past, the counting and identification of foreign currency cash had to be done under the witness of customers, and the staff of outlets had to complete a series of processes step by step, such as customer identity verification, cash withdrawal amount verification, money withdrawal, foreign management information registration and cash counting, which often took more than half an hour. At present, Bank of China has launched the foreign currency smart access service, and customers can make an appointment to withdraw foreign currency cash through online channels such as mobile banking and micro-banking. The back-office vault will immediately receive the order information, allocate foreign currency cash according to customers’ needs, seal it in a standard envelope, and deliver it to the appointment outlets. After customers arrive at the store offline, they can go directly to the smart counter for self-service without queuing to get the number, which takes only one or two minutes.
Online and offline collaborative development can provide customers with more choices.
"When issuing income certificates, asset certificates and other materials, customers can flexibly choose the handling method according to their own needs. If the customer does not have time to go to the bank outlet, he can apply for a certificate online and send it to the customer; If customers need to use it urgently or need an on-site seal, they can also go to the outlets to handle it quickly and collect it on the spot. " Sun anqin said.
"The rapid development of online business has greatly promoted the transformation and upgrading of bank outlets." Wang Haiquan said that on the one hand, online business can effectively divert the standardized business of previous outlets, so that the manpower of outlets can be invested in more professional and personalized services; On the other hand, the development of online business is conducive to enhancing user experience, increasing customer stickiness, enhancing brand influence and better promoting the development of offline business.
The insiders believe that no matter which channel customers access from online or offline, customers should feel the undifferentiated and integrated service experience. Through the integration and development of online and offline services, increasing data sharing, and combining big data, artificial intelligence and other technical means, it is conducive to building a more complete and three-dimensional customer portrait and achieving accurate and caring services.
