Even though more than half, about 58 percent, of PNC customers don’t walk into a branch for their banking needs, the executive in charge of the bank’s retail and consumer banking operations says she doesn’t think physical bank branches will ever go away.
“We are living in a mobile world. Banking is no longer about where you go, it’s about what you do. You can do banking from anywhere at this point in time. That was never the case, even a few years ago,” said Karen Larrimer, PNC Head of Retail Banking and Chief Customer Officer. As recently as four years ago, 38 percent of PNC customers used use non-branch channels, like online, mobile and ATM, for the majority of their transactions.
But Larrimer is not predicting that some bank branches will always be around to serve the older adults and senior citizens who still want to walk in and see the teller they’ve known for years.
“I don’t see that customers will be coming in to do transactions like deposit a check or cash a check. That’s what’s moving away,” said Larrimer, based in Pittsburgh, who was in Akron recently to hold a “town hall” meeting with employees. I took the opportunity to talk to Larrimer by phone after her visit to ask the high-ranking banking executive her thoughts about the banking industry and what consumers could expect.
“Even the younger generation, when it comes to their money, we find very often still like to have a conversation with a person” when it comes to larger decisions, like a mortgage, loan or investment, she said.
“I think there’s a physical relationship with money that will always have a need for physical branches,” said Larrimer.
But with that said, and the numbers showing the trends of growing mobile and digital banking, Larrimer said her team is extremely focused on digital banking.
“With my team, it’s mobile first. We want to build our capabilities that it can be done on the phone in their hand wherever they are and then build it back from there,” said Larrimer.
Larrimer, who started in the banking industry in the early 1980s, said banking has changed by leaps and bounds.
“The velocity of change right now is at the greatest I have ever seen,” she said.
When asked what changes in technology she could see in the future of banking, she said it’s tough to predict because it’s constantly evolving.
“The ways you can now identify yourself, whether through your fingerprint or retinal scan, we’re looking at all of those things,” Larrimer said.
Adapting to change sometimes comes slowly for consumers, and other times quickly.
“When we brought ATMs out, its options took a lot of time. Then people would start to take cash out, but were very worried about depositing a check into the machine,” she said.
Now, through the first half of 2016, more than half (51.6 percent) of PNC deposit transactions came via ATM and mobile channels compared with 38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Larrimer said what has surprised her is how quickly consumers have accepted mobile banking.
PNC in 2015 also launched its Innovation Lab in Pittsburgh, a full replica of a branch of the future, which constantly changes. The bank uses customers to test new technologies before they go out to market.
Some of the new branches the bank is deploying are focused on taking away the standard teller station.
“When you walk into old-format branches, you wait in line to see the teller. [The new format] is a much more open environment. We’d have employees using iPads, greeting customers and taking them to a private area [for any banking needs],” said Larrimer, who added that there weren’t any of those models yet in Akron.
To look more into the future, Larrimer said some branch layouts will go as far as people tellerless, or all electronic. In those, a customer would walk up to an ATM and talk on a screen to a real person, be it a mortgage broker, investment person or customer service person.
However, Larrimer said, “what would not work everywhere,” or be received well by some banking customers, so she still sees a combination of traditional and futuristic branches.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty