With the modern decline of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and the ever-increasing ubiquity of virtual business, modern banking is also following the trends. In fact, the trend towards non-traditional banking can be seen as beginning with the introduction of automated teller machines (ATMs), which allowed for the automation of numerous everyday customer tasks such as withdrawing or depositing cash. The technology initially made its debut in the late 1960s, but it wasn't until the 90s that the technology really proliferated. Today, ATMs allow bank customers to perform myriad functions at any hour of the day and any day of the week (even when the bank would traditionally not be open). Then, with the growth of the internet, especially in the late '90s and early 2000s, even more banking services began to work their way onto the World-Wide-Web.
Even with all these technological advances, there will likely always be a need for physical locations for banks. Some tasks, at least at the current state of things, can only be done in-person. And, some banks leverage this fact as a matter of reducing risk (to both their clients and the bank itself). For example, a high-risk transaction such as an international bank wire might require a client to go into a bank and be positively identified in order for the transaction to be processed. This, however, still requires the need for qualified bank staff to be present in order to qualify and process each client's request. Video banking and, more precisely, modern video bank solutions can provide a perfect mixture of both technology and physical presence to a bank's portfolio of services.
Video banking solutions can encompass everything from a dedicated video conferencing kiosk within a physical bank location (like an ATM) to more virtual video conferencing services that allow clients to perform tasks from the safety and comfort of their own homes. This can be especially beneficial to banks, as it allows for a more efficient use of more specialty bank personnel. For example, most banks might not always need the services of a dedicated in-branch mortgage loan officer. With a video banking kiosk at branches that don't usually generate too much mortgage business, it would allow a centrally located bank mortgage representative to serve multiple branches simultaneously. And, much like an ATM, it can allow for a wider coverage of services than traditional brick-and-mortar strategies typically allow. The benefit to the client is that they can do business when they need to. In this scenario, both the bank and its clients win.