Its 11:05 am and I find myself in a bank, I joined a queue that has about 13 people waiting to go see the tellers, there are 3 tellers in all and one designated solely for international remittances so in the end two of the tellers are assigned to people visiting the banks for basic bank transactions; the regular Cheque pay-ins, cash withdrawals, etc There are two other bank staff seated in the rear of the banking hall labeled client services. I am here to just pay in a check and do an account to account transfer (something I should be able to do on my phone but for some reasons my internet banking hasn’t worked for over 2 months and regular calls to my personal banker over the period has yielded no results) back to my issue. So the queue is quite slow in flowing, tellers spending averagely 8 minutes on each customer.
I sit waiting while listening to an audio book on my phone with an earpiece but i can still hear the the tellers shout “Next customer please” to signal the next customer to walk up to the counter. Gradually it gets to my turn, now its been 40 minutes. I walk up to the teller and i greet her with a hello accompanied by a smile (though i was stressed), she returned my gesture and smiled as well but hers was more routine and plastic, she took my cheque looked at it turned the reverse and did same she looked up at me and asked if i was a signatory to the account I i shruggingly said yes, she noisily hits the cheque with a stamp then punched a few numbers on her keyboard I assumed she was entering my account number to initiate the pay in, she then makes a few markings on my pay in slip signs her signature and finally stamps the sheets and hands me the duplicate now its about 12:00 I had spent close to an hour at the bank already just to pay in a cheque.
I walked up to the 2 ladies sitting at the rear of the hall to make a funds transfer, this lady hands me an A4 sheet with the funds transfer form with so many fields, i quietly ask for a pen to fill out the form and the lady almost scatters her desk looking for a pen then after giving up on the search she points to the other counter and asks me to fill out the form there. I took the challenge went to fill the form and returned now she was attending to another client and i had to wait for another 12 minutes within which she got up one time with a huge notebook climbed the stairs and another time with a cheque book i assumed the client was signing a counter cheque, now it was my turn again i sat down and handed the sheet over to the lady she looked at it and told me i could leave and i asked if she was sure the funds would be transferred on time, she nodded in affirmation so I left, now it was about 12:30. I had wasted close to 2 hours just doing two things in the bank.
Now this is practically the same thing that happens in many other banks, long Queues, unnecessary paper works, unnecessary questionnaires, unwanted bureaucracies, I remember trying to open an account in a different bank with a coFounder of one of my businesses, we were handed over 3 different forms to fill these forms had not less than 3 leaflets in them and my signature was required more than 8 times and all these forms were requesting for my full name, identification details etc. I had to fill a form to
1. request a debit card
2. request SMS and email notifications
3. request a cheque book
4. verify accounts
5. accept the terms
6. verify my picture
7. and a few others
While i drove back to my office i wondered the many things i could have done with the time i had spent in the bank. I could have, read a full 30 page book (which i did tho), written a whole chapter of a book, done some online research, and many other productive things
I have heard stories of how in some advanced world you are not even required to visit the bank for some basic bank transactions as depositing money, transferring money, paying for goods and services etc. In some you are forced to use your debit or credit cards or mobile payment systems. I travelled once to an African Country some time ago and i entered a bank to receive money sent to me via bank transfer, the teller knew immediately i was not Ghanaian even before i spoke. she just politely and in a way to mock me pointed to the ATM outside that i should just go there and follow prompts. so i walked up there entered my transfer details and my money was in my hand in a few minutes. I realized the bank was almost empty and those there were there for much more technical things.
The definition of banking has changed over the past few years with the birth of convenience innovation, whether telco-led or bank-led there has been some massive innovation. From depositing cash, to transferring funds across banks, and even to mobile money accounts, paying for goods and services, global remittance, purchasing investment products, and many more.
Innovation has been so disruptive in the banking industry that banks that focus on building brick and mortar branches in this era may be focusing on the wrong side of the pie.
Consumers are now drawn to convenience, it is almost synonymous, they like to do basic transactions from the convenience of their homes. banks should focus on taking the ATMs, loan products, customer services and more, if we want to increase the banked population which stands at about 25% innovation in the banking sector has a major role to play and all hands must be on deck; government, banks, telcos.
