????美國北卡羅萊那州羅利市的沿海聯邦信用合作社（Coastal Federal Credit Union）里似乎少了些什么。走進這家銀行旗下15家分行中的任何一家，你找不到一位坐在柜臺后面的銀行出納員。事實上它的分行里根本就沒有出納柜臺，而是由一排類似自動取款機（ATM）的機器在“恭候顧客”，“鼓勵”顧客登錄，通過視頻會議方式與身處數英里之外辦公室里的銀行出納員對話并完成交易。歡迎光臨，這可能成為未來銀行的服務模式。

????如今，成本上漲，同時消費者越來越需要移動交易方式。面對這種情況，各大零售銀行目前在分行服務方面正紛紛采用“個人取款機”（personal teller machines）——這種設備類似于視頻會議加上集中化出納服務。除了ATM的典型功能之外，這些虛擬出納員還可以完成開支票、開設、關閉賬戶甚至處理貸款等事情。

????“視頻銀行服務目前仍處于初期階段，但零售銀行服務方面在未來五年內將會發生很多變化，而個人取款機將成為這個新興形勢中的一個重要組成部分，”波士頓研究及咨詢公司——賽訊咨詢公司（Celent）銀行業分析師鮑勃?米拉如是表示。事實上，在賽訊咨詢公司今年夏季進行的一項調查中，有近三分之二的信用合作社及三分之一的銀行表示，他們早已開始使用、或者計劃在未來一年內使用個人取款機、自助服務終端或自助服務亭。

????之所以出現這種趨勢，是由于消費者借貸及信用卡消費業務雙雙下滑，而監管部門推出的新規定對各大銀行在透支及借記卡交易方面可以收取的費用設定了限制。由于以開支票方式進行支付的人越來越少，而更多的人喜歡網上銀行服務及通過ATM進行交易，各大銀行向客戶交叉推銷新服務的面對面機會也就越來越少了。米拉說：“近年來，零售銀行業務一直處境不佳?！?/p>

????沿海聯邦信用合作社擁有21億美元的資產，該銀行在2008年開始轉向使用視頻取款機，希望借此能更有效地管理和控制其出納員的停工時間以及分行人員冗余的狀況。該信用合作社目前依靠64臺由uGenius研制的機器（uGenius是一家位于鹽湖城的初創公司），同時其44名銀行出納員坐在該信用合作社羅利總部大樓里的一個類似呼叫中心的場所里，通過電腦屏幕處理客戶發出的交易請求。

????此舉似乎已獲得了百分百的回報。該信用合作社不僅縮減了旗下分行的實體規模，而且削減了40%的出納員成本，同時將出納員的工作時間提高了45％?，F在客戶可以每周七天、每天從上午7點至下午7點通過出納員獲得銀行服務。

????Something's missing at the Coastal Federal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. Walk into any of the bank's 15 branches and you'll find not a single bank teller behind the counter. In fact, there's no teller counter at all. Instead, a line of ATM-style machines greets visitors, encouraging them to log in and chat via video-conferencing with bank tellers located in an office located miles away. Welcome to what may become the future of banking.

????Facing increased costs and demand from consumers for more mobile transactions, retail banks are now turning to "personal teller machines," akin to video-conferencing with centralized tellers, for branch service. These virtual tellers can do things like write checks, open and close accounts, even handle loans in addition to the typical ATM functions.

????"Video banking is still nascent but there will be lots of change in retail banking over the next five years, and personal teller machines will be a big part of the emerging landscape," says Bob Meara, a banking analyst at the Boston research and consulting firm Celent. In fact, nearly two-thirds of credit unions and one-third of banks surveyed by Celent this summer say they already use or plan to use personal teller machines, self-service terminals or kiosks within the next year.

????Credit the decline in consumer lending, the drop in credit card spending and new regulation that limits fees banks can charge on overdrafts and debit card transactions. And as fewer people write checks and more people prefer online banking and ATM transactions, banks get fewer face-to-face opportunities to cross-sell new services to customers. "Recent years have not been kind to retail banking," says Meara.

????Coastal Federal, a credit union with $2.1 billion in assets, began moving to the video teller machines in 2008 with hopes of better managing its teller downtime and over-staffed branches. The credit union now relies on 64 machines created by uGenius, a startup in Salt Lake City, while its 44 bank tellers sit inside a call center-like setting at the credit union's Raleigh headquarters handling customer transactions via computer screens.

????The move seems to have paid off. The credit union not only reduced the physical size of its branches but cut teller costs by 40% while increasing teller hours 45%. Customers can now do their banking with tellers seven days a week 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.