Bank tellers are the next blacksmiths

The Washington Post reports:

Self-driving cars. Self-serve gas pumps. Self-checkout supermarkets.

Add self-banking to that list.

No people. No tellers. Nobody greeting you with “How is your day going?” Although, that may come from a machine — and sooner than you think.

Bank of America has opened three mini-bank branches­ since the new year that have ATMs and video­conferencing but no people. Two opened in Denver and one in Minneapolis.

In addition to the ATMs, the new robo-banks — called automated centers — allow customers to make a video­conference call to a Bank of America employee at another location to discuss more complicated money issues.

“This is the beginning of the end of the American bank branch,” said Peter Fitzgerald, a former U.S. senator from Illinois, lifelong banker and founder of Chain Bridge Bank in McLean, Va. “Bank branches are dead. They were killed by the iPhone. It’s like the horseshoe when the automobile came along.”

An article well worth your time.