New breed of bankers,no lunch break needed
Print Edition
We have convenience stores without cashiers, and now it seems banks are the latest business to dispense with traditional staff.
The concept of a bank without tellers was so intriguing that when Jiang Zhongquan, a postgraduate at the Nanjing Forestry University, came to Shanghai last week to visit his girlfriend, he couldn鈥檛 resist the chance to see China鈥檚 first-ever unmanned bank.
It is the Jiujiang Road sub-branch of China Construction Bank, where customers are served by robots, not humans.
A genial robotic woman at the front of the branch is the lobby manager. She welcomes customers, finds out what they want to do and helps them get a queue ticket.
Those entering the bank need to scan an identification card or China Construction bankcard to gain admission. On their next-time visit at the bank, they need only show their face to a scanning machine at the entrance.
Jiang said the most interesting feature of the bank was the use of virtual reality to find home rentals. He told Shanghai Daily that he usually looks for rentals via agencies, which is rather time-consuming and not always in tune with his expectations.
鈥淲ith the virtual reality equipment in the branch, I know exactly how a flat looks and what kinds of facilities it has,鈥 Jiang said, 鈥淚 need only check out those that really impress me, instead of wasting my time looking at others.鈥
He said he also found it 鈥減ractical and convenient鈥 to withdraw or deposit cash using facial recognition technology at the automatic teller machines.
It鈥檚 a simple matter of linking a banking card with a mobile phone number and recording your face. The machines do the rest.
Any problems in the outlet? Just contact one of the patrol robots programmed to deal with any circumstance that may arise.
Jiang鈥檚 conclusion?
鈥淚t was really novel and fun,鈥 he said, after talking with the robots. 鈥淭hey tell me almost everything I need to know about the bank鈥檚 services.鈥
For Yuan Yunke, Jiang鈥檚 girlfriend and a first-year postgraduate at the Economics School of Shanghai University, first impressions were not so favorable.
She said she is concerned that graduates like her, majoring in economics or finance, may never find jobs in the future.
Jiang tried to jolly her up by noting that bank personnel in the future will be liberated from drudge routine work and can be deployed to more creative jobs.
Xie Yong, a local resident in his 40s, said he felt a bit confused after visiting the unmanned branch.
鈥淭he younger generation prefers to do transactions via mobile banking applications, while many senior citizens may find high-tech banking difficult to master,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 quite understand why the bank needs such an outlet here. It may not attract much traffic in the long term.鈥
For now, the novelty of the new outlet is attracting customers of all ages.
Guo Lanying, a 63-year-old Jilin Province lawyer on a business trip in Shanghai, said she found the facilities at the branch interesting and helpful. She told Shanghai Daily that she hopes to see more such outlets in other cities in China.
Unlike online banking, clients at the branch get receipts showing their transactions. She said that was reassuring.
鈥淎fter all, regulations on online banking services aren鈥檛 comprehensive yet in China,鈥 she noted. 鈥淲e consumers want to protect ourselves.鈥
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