PNC: ‘As digital banking continues to grow, you’ll see more emphasis on relationship banking versus transactional banking.’
Three years ago, Pew Research conducted a survey that found 51 percent of U.S. adults were banking online. The same year, PNC rolled out its first Pop Up bank in Atlantic Station. The space-saving Pop Up Bank is compact at only 160 square feet, but the most important feature is that it’s mobile for the mobile customer.
According to Scott Stafford, PNC Bank EVP & Market Manager for Georgia, the Pop Up bank has been successful so far and has provided a good “testing ground” for future endeavors. PNC has since installed a DepositEasy smart ATM at the Midtown mixed-use development.
“Both consumer demand and technology are constantly evolving, so we’re thinking less like bankers and more like innovators,” he said.
“We are increasingly focused on the development and delivery of digital products and services that improve the customer experience.”
In recent years, other large retail corporations such as Borders Group have felt the economic hit from technological changes. With a new generation gravitating towards online banking over traditional brick and mortar branches, banks like PNC have had to tweak their building and business models to meet consumer demands.
“We’re building smaller, using more technology and thinking differently about how we hire,” Stafford said.
“This year, more than 50 percent of PNC’s deposit transactions came from non-branch channels like online, mobile, and ATM banking. That’s up from 38 percent less than four years ago.”
Recent data indicates that those numbers will keep climbing.
A study released by the Federal Reserve earlier this year shows millennial online banking numbers up to 67 percent. That’s a 16 percent increase from just a few years ago. Those numbers don’t speak for everyone, however. Only 18 percent of customers aged 60 and over use online banking at all.
The Fed survey suggests that the rise of smartphones and mobile banking apps have strengthened the digital shift in the way customers manage their money, but that doesn’t mean banks like PNC are willing to move entirely online.
“Branch convenience still remains the number one factor when people choose their primary bank,” Stafford said. “Despite the increased use of digital banking, many people still prefer face-to face help with major money decisions such as mortgage loans and retirement investments.”
“So we’ll continue to deliver what our clients want, when and where they want it, but we’ll build the branch space differently,” he added.
For example, PNC has 79 branches in the metro Atlanta area. Some of them are as small as 400 square feet, while others are as large as a traditional bank at around 4,000 square feet. None of the branches are quite as small and portable as the Pop Up bank at Atlantic Station, but they do boast a new model, utilizing convenience-driven implementations such as computer and tablet bars for customer use and teller-less branches.
Stafford believes PNC is moving in the right direction to bridge the gap between traditional bank models and high-tech consumer demands.
“Our clients may not come in to deposit or cash checks, but they still come in to have those retirement or college planning conversations. As digital banking continues to grow, you’ll see more emphasis on relationship banking versus transactional banking. And we’re adapting our branch models to meet this change.”
[Disclosure: PNC is What Now Atlanta’s Preferred Banking Partner.]
