Banks banking on futuristic flagships
Print Edition
Installation art, interactive walls and a robot doorman; the flagship branches of the world’s top banks have come a long way from the iron grilles and potted plants of old.
To compete against online-only rivals and to attract a new generation of customers to branches, banks are installing sleek interiors and hi-tech gadgetry.
ATMs that read fingerprints, touch-screen desks to flick through your finances and videoconference units for expert advice are shown at payments-technology firm Wincor Nixdorf’s showroom in the Paris suburb of Velizy.
“Banks are investing a lot in their retail branches,” said Steve Bousabata, head of Wincor's French banking services arm. “They want customers to come back.”
The reason is clear: after years of relying on branches to drive retail revenue, European banks expect such networks to supply only 62 percent of sales by 2020 from today’s average of 81 percent, said Equinox Consulting.
Banks, especially those still nursing losses from the financial crisis, are under pressure to cut costs and are balancing the need to pare back branch networks by sprucing up select outlets.
But branches are still the first point of contact for many customers and are still the primary location for product sales. Flashy “bank of the future” branches mixing gadgetry with design similar to Apple’s minimalist stores have been opened by BNP Paribas in Paris, Barclays in London and Deutsche Bank in Berlin — at an estimated cost of 5 million euros (US$7 million) each.
They include lounges, giant interactive screens and other trimmings such as handbags for sale and pieces of art.
Gauging their success is tricky. BNP was willing to give data on its refurbished flagship branch near the Paris Opera — which three years ago was fitted with a wall covered in plants, iPads for customer use and a touch-screen desk — saying that footfall was up 40 percent and new clients up 25 percent.
Italy’s Unicredit also said that footfall and new business were up at its newly revamped flagship branch in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, which offers “welcoming scents” and a touch-screen wall. Visits are up by an average of 60 percent while loans and deposits have doubled, a spokeswoman said.
BNP has done away with some ideas that failed to click with consumers: it has scrapped the iPads and touch-screen desk in favor of an interactive wall.
Some 88 percent of bank executives view their flagship branches in main street areas as being “successful” in promoting brand awareness, said a survey by Equinox.
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