The UK's Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank has developed a card-based system for business customers who make deposits and withdrawals at Post Office branches.
The new system will see PIN-protected plastic cards replace paper withdrawal slips and cheques and will be available across the Post Office's 14,300 branch network in the UK.
The system has been designed for business cusomters that who make deposits, withdrawals and require a change-giving service via Post Office branches.
Alliance & Leicester says the automated system will lead to a 50% reduction in the amount of paper flowing between the Post Office and the bank.
Steve Jennings, director of business banking at Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, says the bank initially introduced the automated system for small business customers making deposits, but following a successful pilot has extended it to other banking services and to incorporate all customers.
"Given the added security benefit for customers and the reduction in the amount of paper generated via transactions, we believe this the new system will prove to be very popular with business customers of all sizes," says Jennings.