A state-owned bank in China has opened its first fully automated branch in Shanghai’s Huangpu district that is being marked for country’s first “unmanned bank“.
The automated branch is equipped with a facial scanning software, a hologram machine, a virtual reality room, talking robots and touchscreens for paying utility bills among a host of other functions.
China Construction Bank, based in Beijing says that the high-tech branch is focused on bringing convenience, personalization, and efficiency to banking. It also works to face off competition from cashless payment systems that are giving the banks a run for their money.
The bank has robots to greet customers at the entrance and work on voice recognition software. Clients need to swipe their national identification cards to enter the bank or alternatively can use the bank’s facial recognition device for authentication.
Machines inside the bank premises allow visitors to buy gold, change currency annd even scout real estate investments using virtual reality googles.
The bank is not totally unstaffed. There are guards at the sentry and a room that has teleconference software allowing VIP clients to request help from human employees based elsewhere.
Though the trend in automation is not maiden and we have seen retailers in China as well outside tinkering with automated supermarkets, yet China Construction Bank is taking the technology a step further by housing face recognition abilities to act as a breakthrough.