Need to visit the bank for some issue? Imagine standing in the line and waiting for your turn. Dampens your mood, doesn’t it? Singapore National Bank is offering its banking service in an intriguing new way – via video conference.
It would be Singapore’s first ever teller machines based that have video chat enabled so the customer can talk to the teller live. Currently, the system has only one operational machine at ITE College Central located in Ang Mo Kio but the bank is expecting that the system will get positive reviews and hopes to introduce more video-enabled machines around Singapore before the start of next year.
How will the machines run? Well first of all the bank is offering 24/7 service which means the teller needs to be professional, active and available round the clock. This service is not offered by real banks even as they close by late evening at most. This virtual banking machine will be able to perform activities like any usual ATM e.g. balance enquiry, cash withdrawal and dispense internet banking tokens as well as debit cards.
To access the machine, the user will have to bring a valid identification. The machine will also use biometric analysis for authorization e.g. fingerprint scanning.
“We see the [machines] as a game-changer for the industry, in terms of delivering round-the-clock branch banking services to our customers,” said Jeremy Soo, managing director at DBS Bank, Singapore.
The first ever video enabled teller machine currently runs from 10 am – 2 pm from Monday to Friday and till 1 pm on Saturdays. After gathering some response, DBS will extend the virtual banking service to 24/7. We find this quite interesting. Instead of waiting in line at a bank, this seems like a worthy alternative. Let us know what you think of this video-conference teller machines!
