Standard Chartered Hong Kong opens digital branch

I have to go into a branch to sign electronically on an iPad!!?!?

I'm afraid there's a major, major disconnect here with consumer behavior. There is still an overriding sense of process curtailing innovation, not seamless service that works to improve customer interactions. Today if I go to StandardChartered.com.hk I still have to submit at least 3 documents manually before I can open an account or apply for a credit card - this is not progress.

https://forms.online.standardchartered.com/public_website/hongkong/OnlineSales/credit_card_form.html?Cardtype=HK_SCP&Gifttype=SC13

We have to get out of the mindset that branch revenue is better because the PROCESS and data collection is preferred by compliance - that is not a value add. Until we do, new branch designs like this are just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic

I went through a double coincidence w.r.t StanChart in the past half hour: 

I completed an online application for a StanChart credit card. I heaved a sigh of relief when I reached the documentation section of the application. I didn't have to fumble around scanning and uploading several pages of required documents on to their website. They're going to send a person over to my house to collect all that in hard copy form. I found this to be a good example of omnichannel banking - do on the web what the web is strong at, do face to face what face to face is strong at. 

I just read this article about SQUARE's approach to product design: "At Square, ..., the goal is not necessarily to supplant the tools we use on a daily basis, but to make them more useful. The original Square device, for example, didn’t bundle in NFC for wireless payments, but instead made accepting (plastic) credit cards easier. This approach — to augment and reshape our current technology rather than replace it - has thus far been working for Square." 

StanChart's approach resonates well with SQUARE's and I'm sure it will work as well for StanChart as it has for SQUARE.