Absa has opened an entirely paperless branch at Johannesburg’s upmarket Hyde Park Corner shopping centre. The branch offers automated queuing systems to minimise the time consumers have to spend in the branch and is the model that the bank will use for all of its branches across South Africa.

Absa CEO Maria Ramos says the branch represents the “new face of traditional banking”. The Hyde Park branch follows the model pioneered by the bank with its Clearwater Mall branch.

Ramos says the bank will replicate the new branch model across the country. The goal with the new branches, she says, is to provide the best customer experience possible by ensuring staff are skilled in a wide variety of products and services and that processes are as streamlined as possible.

The revamped branch includes “quick service kiosks” that allow customers to perform self-service banking activities. Should customers need to queue, the bank’s new “Qmatic” system uses a ticketing system to match a customer’s transactional requirements with the consultant best equipped to assist them.

The bank also hopes to provide all services a customer may need at a single counter, sparing them having to queue more than once.

Absa has removed the glass barriers that existed between staff and customers. For security, all cash is handed by teller cash recycling machines that take deposits or allow for cash withdrawals.

Absa personal and business banking head Craig Bond says the Hyde Park branch is a blueprint for its branches across the country and eventually across the continent through its partnership with parent Barclays.