As a new world emerges from COVID, in-person banking is becoming a thing of the past. Leading Financial Services provider Suncorp announced closure of 19 stores and 1 business centre across Queensland, Victoria and NSW. The closure means services would be provided in the digital and online channels.
Although the trend was seen for some years the appetite for digital banking had accelerated sharply through COVID-19, said Chris Fleming, EGM of Customer distribution at Suncorp.
“More and more customers have switched to digital banking in 2020, and we expect they will still want to bank digitally beyond COVID-19 and face-to-face transactions will fall further.”
Over-the-counter transactions are down almost 60 per cent since June 2016
COVID has further accelerated the Suncorp digital strategy and the results are clear. Suncorp stated “the number of digital transactions has risen a further 10 per cent this year and two-thirds of new accounts now opened online.
Many customers are using the Suncorp app or talking to us on the phone”.
Also read: Suncorp debuts image capturing digital feature to assist with vehicle repairs
Earlier this August, National Australia Bank made changes to its branch banking model acknowledging the market shift to digital banking. Deploying digital and phone support, NAB claimed the new model would still see hundreds of jobs maintained.
NAB revealed that “over 90% of NAB’s customer interactions were now taking place online or by phone. Also over 50% of customers log into NAB digital banking via the app or online. Over-the-counter transactions have reduced by a quarter in the past year.”
