Digital Banking Didn’t Kill Bank Branches—But Chatbots Will

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK

Predictions of the death—or at least, decline—of bank branches have been around for a while. In 2012, well-known fintech futurist Brett King published Branch Today, Gone Tomorrow: The Case for the Death of Branch Banking, and even before that, in 2011, Forbes published an article titled Who Needs Bank Branches? with the description, “Good-bye, tellers. Hello, mobile apps.”

The predictions haven’t come true, however. The number of branches has declined over the past 10 years—from 85,000 in 2012 to 72,000 in 2022, an annual decline of just 1.7%. But make no mistake, bank branches are far from dead.