China’s Banking Showdown: WeChat vs. 3 Million Bank Tellers

Around the world, when bankers ask themselves where the next big technological threat to their business model will come from, they imagine a future that looks a lot like China now. The nation is home to the world’s biggest mobile payments market, which handled $17 trillion in transactions last year. Chinese consumers, particularly millennials, love the convenience of buying mutual fund shares and insurance policies with a swipe on their smartphone. If they do wander into a bank, it might be one like the country’s first fully automated branch, which opened this summer in Shanghai.

Customers gain entry with facial and voice recognition scans and are greeted by two teller-bots. In addition to normal banking services, the “intelligent teller machines” (ITMs) at the China Construction Bank Corp. branch offer online shopping and utility-bill payment services. There’s even a virtual-reality showroom, where visitors don headsets to explore potential apartment rentals.