Potential Employment Effects of the Restructuring of Retail Banking

The largest U.S. commercial banks are currently in theprocess of restructuring their retail operations. A stagnantdeposit base and intense competition in the marketplacefor financial services have made the overhead costs of anextensive branch network increasingly onerous. At thesame time, advances in electronic communications technologyare making low-cost remote delivery of bankingservices more of a reality. In response, banks are taking severalimportant steps to restructure their branch systems.This presentation will focus on two of these steps: the substitutionof supermarket (also called in-store) branches fortraditional offices and the expansion of telephone bankingthrough twenty-four-hour phone centers.[...]