Banks are undergoing significant changes, with digital services replacing traditional ones. Over the next decade, paper-based services, such as checks and statements, will move online. Physical bank branches are declining, and rural areas will rely heavily on digital technology for everyday banking. This shift is driven by cost-effective and convenient digital services.
As fewer customers visit traditional branches, in-person services like check writing, paper-based transactions, and traditional teller roles are becoming obsolete. Asset management services are also moving online, offering efficiency, lower costs, and wider accessibility. Embracing these changes is crucial for staying relevant in the evolving banking landscape.
1. Physical Bank Branches
Waiting in line at the bank is a colossal waste of time. Not only did you have to burn your lunch break, if you exceeded the 1 hour because you were the 50th person in queue, you'd have to take a half day off work just to perform what would have been a simple transaction. Somehow the rest of the population in the district also had the same urge to suddenly visit the bank to get their finances in order the same day you walked in. It was so harrowingly slow that I closed my account with that bank once I got to the teller, instead of doing other transactions.
DBS had the privilege of putting up easily accessible ATM machines across the country at MRTs and shopping malls, so you didn't have to venture too far to get to a branch. Each machine could perform most of the regular transactions that would otherwise have happened in a manned branch.
And anyway, in space-scarce Singapore, sometimes less is best.
2. Phasing out Cheques
Killing the trees, bounced cheques that you'll only find out after 3 working days? What else is there to processing cheques that can't furthermore suggest it is archaic and slow? It additionally requires you to seek out the nearest bank branch that has a cheque drop, which we are already getting lesser of.
Cash has been an immediate means of payment that is physical and that functions well, so that you know you're not being duped or misled into using a faulty cheque. The Singapore government finally announced the scraping of cheques by end 2025 as they phase out cheques and such services altogether, so that will give seniors and corporations time to update their payment systems to more modern methods.
3. Paper Documents
That said, paper for monthly bank statements to loan applications have been also steadily moving online so that all your records need not be repeated and snail-mailed to you. With robust database and user-friendly bank systems or financial service systems, insurance applications to house purchases are all achievable at the touch of a few buttons.
Bank tokens that were also meant to generate our OTP uniquely were eventually no longer in service, what more of paper printing. Banks and SingPass have created apps to allow easier use of their services while ensuring your data remains cybersecure, and they constantly do their best to send notifications or banner reminders about spams or potential shady websites if it doesn't begin with their original url "gov.org.sg" or "dbs.com.sg".
So no more paper, since they go into the shredder anyway.
4. In-person Interactions
Online purchasing, ordering food, administrative tasks are increasingly digital, such that human interactions become less and less. If someone delivers your parcel, there's now the option of leaving it in the shoe rack or at the door so you don't have to be there to receive. Likewise with food, you can inform the delivery rider to now leave the food on a hook at the door or in a basket you set outside.
Banks and transactions become more automated and less interactive, but at the convenience of having the service 24/7. Since the human cannot be there serving you hand and foot 24/7, digital is the way to go to keep the world turning, albeit at a faster rate.
5. Safe Deposit Boxes
Though these are not phasing out just yet, it has become increasingly expensive to upkeep and maintain private vaults that clients pay a small subscription for in banks. The environment has to be climate-controlled and since it has to be supervised, a staff has to be on-site to ensure nothing errant happens to the boxes or that clients don't try to access other boxes. These services are also often subject to the opening hours of the banks, so once they're closed, you cannot get to your valuables. You have to work around their timing rather than at your own convenience.
With the ease of 24/7 automated access, service at your fingertips make light work of the many tasks we are encumbered with. Just like the easy online application for a personal private safe deposit box in a military-grade vault in the middle of Orchard Road.
Vault@268 takes one of the existing banking services and make it easy to access, without the need for a staff present to pull out your box manually. This way you maintain the security and secrecy of your contents. A robotic arm is automated to do the menial tasks or retrieving your box, so you know that staff do not access your boxes on your behalf at any time, making it absolutely safe.
Take a tour of Vault@268 today to find out for yourself!
(Article updated 18 Nov 2023, with reference to http://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/5-bank-services-obsolete-10-years/)
5 Banking Services That Will Be Obsolete in 10 Years
Banks are undergoing significant changes, with digital services replacing traditional ones. Over the next decade, paper-based services, such as checks and statements, will move online. Physical bank branches are declining, and rural areas will rely heavily on digital technology for everyday banking. This shift is driven by cost-effective and convenient digital services.
As fewer customers visit traditional branches, in-person services like check writing, paper-based transactions, and traditional teller roles are becoming obsolete. Asset management services are also moving online, offering efficiency, lower costs, and wider accessibility. Embracing these changes is crucial for staying relevant in the evolving banking landscape.
1. Physical Bank Branches
Waiting in line at the bank is a colossal waste of time. Not only did you have to burn your lunch break, if you exceeded the 1 hour because you were the 50th person in queue, you'd have to take a half day off work just to perform what would have been a simple transaction. Somehow the rest of the population in the district also had the same urge to suddenly visit the bank to get their finances in order the same day you walked in. It was so harrowingly slow that I closed my account with that bank once I got to the teller, instead of doing other transactions.
DBS had the privilege of putting up easily accessible ATM machines across the country at MRTs and shopping malls, so you didn't have to venture too far to get to a branch. Each machine could perform most of the regular transactions that would otherwise have happened in a manned branch.
And anyway, in space-scarce Singapore, sometimes less is best.
2. Phasing out Cheques
Killing the trees, bounced cheques that you'll only find out after 3 working days? What else is there to processing cheques that can't furthermore suggest it is archaic and slow? It additionally requires you to seek out the nearest bank branch that has a cheque drop, which we are already getting lesser of.
Cash has been an immediate means of payment that is physical and that functions well, so that you know you're not being duped or misled into using a faulty cheque. The Singapore government finally announced the scraping of cheques by end 2025 as they phase out cheques and such services altogether, so that will give seniors and corporations time to update their payment systems to more modern methods.
3. Paper Documents
That said, paper for monthly bank statements to loan applications have been also steadily moving online so that all your records need not be repeated and snail-mailed to you. With robust database and user-friendly bank systems or financial service systems, insurance applications to house purchases are all achievable at the touch of a few buttons.
Bank tokens that were also meant to generate our OTP uniquely were eventually no longer in service, what more of paper printing. Banks and SingPass have created apps to allow easier use of their services while ensuring your data remains cybersecure, and they constantly do their best to send notifications or banner reminders about spams or potential shady websites if it doesn't begin with their original url "gov.org.sg" or "dbs.com.sg".
So no more paper, since they go into the shredder anyway.
4. In-person Interactions
Online purchasing, ordering food, administrative tasks are increasingly digital, such that human interactions become less and less. If someone delivers your parcel, there's now the option of leaving it in the shoe rack or at the door so you don't have to be there to receive. Likewise with food, you can inform the delivery rider to now leave the food on a hook at the door or in a basket you set outside.
Banks and transactions become more automated and less interactive, but at the convenience of having the service 24/7. Since the human cannot be there serving you hand and foot 24/7, digital is the way to go to keep the world turning, albeit at a faster rate.
5. Safe Deposit Boxes
Though these are not phasing out just yet, it has become increasingly expensive to upkeep and maintain private vaults that clients pay a small subscription for in banks. The environment has to be climate-controlled and since it has to be supervised, a staff has to be on-site to ensure nothing errant happens to the boxes or that clients don't try to access other boxes. These services are also often subject to the opening hours of the banks, so once they're closed, you cannot get to your valuables. You have to work around their timing rather than at your own convenience.
With the ease of 24/7 automated access, service at your fingertips make light work of the many tasks we are encumbered with. Just like the easy online application for a personal private safe deposit box in a military-grade vault in the middle of Orchard Road.
Vault@268 takes one of the existing banking services and make it easy to access, without the need for a staff present to pull out your box manually. This way you maintain the security and secrecy of your contents. A robotic arm is automated to do the menial tasks or retrieving your box, so you know that staff do not access your boxes on your behalf at any time, making it absolutely safe.
Take a tour of Vault@268 today to find out for yourself!
(Article updated 18 Nov 2023, with reference to http://www.gobankingrates.com/banking/5-bank-services-obsolete-10-years/)