The rise of designer banks

This article in CoolHunter made me wonder what role banks play in our space. With the growth of mobile-money and the ability to manage one's finances without ever setting foot in a bank, why do we need banks and their branches?

The attempt to join the zeitgeist by turning banks into touch-screen designer boutiques smacks of desperation. A case where function is relegated to the back-seat behind form. It's too easy to slap the lipstick on the pig instead of re-thinking the pig in an environment when so many are turning kosher.

So here are my ideas on re-thinking this pig:

• Instead of parading themselves on the high street at great cost which translates into higher service fees against a deteriorating service perhaps they should close their branches and set up shop in a Checkers like Computicket. Use someone else's footprint and real estate and offer a service to the customer at a place and time convenient to them. The money they save could be used to immediately lower transactional and service fees and improve their service. Have a combination of real-live tellers and touchscreens, not unlike Ster Kinekor. 

• Mobile is the way to go. We're all familiar with the stats on the prevalence of mobile telephony across Africa and the premise that pretty soon smartphones will be the tool of choice for almost everything. So why not create a mobile banking option that obliterates any need for a branch? A comprehensive, bells-and-whistles, simple to use and always works when it's supposed to.  

• Bank as community centre? Maybe not quite the way it's envisioned at Umpqua but considering that South Africa needs to encourage the growth of small businesses does it not make sense to create 24/7 business centres in which the bank is the anchor tenant? From housewives who need a loan to start a small home-baking initiative to the college drop-out who needs advice and finance for a lucrative surfboard business to the entrepreneur who needs assistance in scaling up his empire. Like a banking 'Builder's Warehouse' where everything related in any way, shape or form to enterprise development all under one large, friendly and accessible roof. Project New Bank is an interesting development, it will be interesting to see if they completely re-invent banking or just tweak it.

There are so many options once we begin to consider what role banks now play in our lives and into the future as opposed to what banks were. If they don't catch on to this then mobile service providers could very well be the new bank.