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ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

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Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#81

Post by freedomben »

bob1029 wrote: post #65
freedomben wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My PC has had a scanner connected to it for over 20 years, and in the mid 00s I was scanning and depositing checks through my bank's website (USAA). Even with modern cameras and fancy smarphone software, the results you get from a PC scan are still much better than taking a picture with your phone. If you don't have a scanner, nearly all laptops have a webcam built in, and many people have one for their desktop as we…

> the results you get from a PC scan are still much better than taking a picture with your phone. The quality of the check images is not as big of a deal as you might think. No one is actually inspecting these unless the amount of deposit is near a limit or the account is flagged for suspicious activity. You definitely do not want to throw away the physical copy until the bank confirms the deposit.

Yes I totally agree. Mainly I threw that in there to pre-empt any "quality" argument that someone might try to use for why native mobile app is needed.

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#82

Post by ahartmetz »

1123581321 wrote: post #50
ahartmetz wrote: post #7

I do not get what's special about banking apps as opposed to online banking. I've been doing online banking in the browser on a PC since before apps and I'm still doing it because dealing with data on a phone is painful compared to a PC. Is an app really that much easier to use?

Yes, the apps perform better/faster and generally have more UI thought put into them. Overall, lower friction. Often when people need to use their banking app, they're in a hurry, maybe stressed (e.g. in line at a grocery store) so everything the bank can do quickly and with visual assurance helps. On the premium end of banking, where users generally aren't stressed about money, offering an app is more about catering…

A small screen and shitty keyboard are friction to me shrug

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#83

Post by danesparza »

Correlation is not causation.

There is no clear link to the iPhone causing lower teller employment.

This article does have a glaring omission: The 2008 financial crisis effects on the banking industry in general. When there are fewer local banks there are naturally fewer tellers employed. Bank failures peaked in 2010 in the aftershocks of the crises, which lines up nicely with the articles timeline.

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#84

Post by simonw »

ninalanyon wrote: post #46
ericmay wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you scan a check on your PC? Generally yes the apps tend to be easier to use for most things, especially with a high-speed internet connection. Customers prefer them, banks build them since customers prefer them.

Haven't written or received a cheque in thirty years. But surely you could do it with any kind of digital camera, even a webcam.

Out of interest, do you live in a country other than the USA?

(I'm guessing you are because in the USA they spell it check, not cheque.)

I asked because the USA still seems to be stubbornly check-focused.

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#86

Post by aurareturn »

haliskerbas wrote: post #73
aurareturn wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're already seeing large software companies figure out that they don't need 5,000 developers. They probably only need 1,000 or maybe even fewer. However, the number of software companies being started is booming which should result in net neutral or net positive in software developer employment. Today: 100 software companies employ 1,000 developers each[0] Tomorrow: 10,000 software companies employ 10 developers ea…

Do the booming companies pay the same as the ones who did layoffs? If you're laid off from Meta or other top tier paying company (the behemoths doing layoffs) you might have a tough time matching your compensation.

There's likely going to be a separation between the top earners and the average.

IE. If a top tier dev make $1m today, they'll make $5m in the future. If the average makes $100k today, they'll maybe make $60k.

AI likely enables the best of the best to be much more productive while your average dev will see more productivity but less overall.

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#87

Post by 1123581321 »

ahartmetz wrote: post #82
1123581321 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the apps perform better/faster and generally have more UI thought put into them. Overall, lower friction. Often when people need to use their banking app, they're in a hurry, maybe stressed (e.g. in line at a grocery store) so everything the bank can do quickly and with visual assurance helps. On the premium end of banking, where users generally aren't stressed about money, offering an app is more about catering…

A small screen and shitty keyboard are friction to me shrug

You must know most people only have their phones when they are running errands, at work, etc.

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#88

Post by irjustin »

paxys wrote: post #35

One key line about ATMs is buried deep in the article: > the number of tellers per branch fell by more than a third between 1988 and 2004, but the number of urban bank branches (also encouraged by a wave of bank deregulation allowing more branches) rose by more than 40 percent So, ATMs did impact bank teller jobs by a significant amount. A third of them were made redundant. It's just that the decrease at individual b…

> But will it?

No, because if you think about Startrek the endgame is replicators. Well the concept that 100% of basic needs are met.

At some point work becomes unnecessary for a society to function.

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#89

Post by ericmay »

freedomben wrote: post #39
ericmay wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you scan a check on your PC? Generally yes the apps tend to be easier to use for most things, especially with a high-speed internet connection. Customers prefer them, banks build them since customers prefer them.

My PC has had a scanner connected to it for over 20 years, and in the mid 00s I was scanning and depositing checks through my bank's website (USAA). Even with modern cameras and fancy smarphone software, the results you get from a PC scan are still much better than taking a picture with your phone. If you don't have a scanner, nearly all laptops have a webcam built in, and many people have one for their desktop as we…

> My PC has had a scanner connected to it for over 20 years

You're basically the only person in America doing this. Tens of millions of folks are just scanning it with the app on their phone and it's objectively a much better experience lol. The resolution of the photo taken on your smartphone is beyond good enough, there's no need to over-engineer something here.

> You can't invade the user's privacy nearly as well in a browser (which is great for analytics/marketing), so there's a lot of incentive to the app creator to force a mobile app. But I think we should be honest that it's not for the user, it's for the company.

I agree with your first sentence, but not your second one.

Banking applications can certainly get more/different data on you from using the app, but the job of the bank is to protect money and to know their customer. Privacy is secondary, of course outside of things like other people knowing your account balance, unauthorized access, &c. That's for the bank, because they don't want to lose your money, but it's also for you because you don't want other people getting access to your money.

Re: ATMs didn’t kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did

#90

Post by rkomorn »

simonw wrote: post #84
ninalanyon wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't written or received a cheque in thirty years. But surely you could do it with any kind of digital camera, even a webcam.

Out of interest, do you live in a country other than the USA? (I'm guessing you are because in the USA they spell it check, not cheque.) I asked because the USA still seems to be stubbornly check-focused.

Is it? I lived in the US for 20+ years until 2021 and, though there were definitely more checks than I see in Europe now, the frequency with which I used them was approaching zero, which definitely wouldn't qualify as "stubbornly check-focused".
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