What is hybrid banking?

Most bank customers are nowadays young in age. So they are tech-savvy, too. They seek both convenience and safety from banks spending a minimal amount of time. As these customers are more adapted to technology, they seek digitalisation in banking. On the other hand, senior citizens are reluctant to the adaptation of tech-based banking. So, the challenge for today's banks is to make a balance between the old and young generations in terms of providing banking services. In this regard, development of a hybrid banking model can be a solution to this problem. It is a model, where traditional branches will provide in-house services for the senior citizens whereas online service for the younger generation.

What young customers actually want from banks is frictionless digital banking service, which can be accessed round-the-clock. The older generation, however, feel comfortable while making physical transaction in bank branches. But we may see a fully automated banking service after 20 years or so when banking would be just a click away. But for now, banks should be able to adapt to customers' demand. For this they must develop a faith among them irrespective of their age. The main point is that in order to survive the current competition, there is no alternative to earning customers' faith and preservation. To do so, making a balance between digitalisation and in-house facilities should be the main focus for the banks. Banks should provide customers with a wide-range of e-services as well as branch operations at the same time so that they can meet the demand from customers belonging to two different age groups. This can be called hybrid banking.

Nargis Sultana,

Assistant Professor,

Department of Finance and Banking,

Cumilla University, Cumilla,

nslipa13@gmail.com