The migration of consumers to online and mobile banking options, in addition to automation and other technological forces, has helped fuel thousands of bank branch closures over the past few years. However, banks have hardly given up on figuring out new ways to transform branch banking.

A net decrease of 1,947 branches in the U.S. in 2018 topped the net decreases of 1,919 in 2017 and 1,843 in 2016, according to a recent report from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Nonetheless, JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank recently announced plans to expand their physical footprints, with Chase looking to add up to 90 branches in nine major markets and U.S. Bank looking in select markets with “attractive demographics and a growing population” as well as “opportunity to capture deposit share.”

Down the food chain, community bank Banesco USA, based in Coral Gables, Fla., is building what it says will be its “signature branch” in Aventura, just north of Miami. This sixth branch for the bank comes on the heels of its addition in 2018 of a branch in Hialeah, also in the Miami area.

Jorge Salas, Banesco USA President and CEO, told Bank Innovation that the new branch, to be built in a mixed-use development with 55,000-square-feet of retail space featuring restaurants and cafes, will be less focused on transactions and more focused on advisory services. The key, he said, will be making the branch inviting.

“The branch has to be almost like a living billboard,” he said. “It should reflect your values and your vision and your culture. It should be designed for people to want to come in and feel they can look for advice with their personal or business finances.”

Salas said Banesco USA isn’t alone in experimenting with the branch banking experience, even if that involves tinkering with the purpose of branches, but that different banks have different strategies depending on size and focus.

“Then there’s the Capital One cafe, where they don’t even sell and they’re doing yoga lessons for people who they don’t even know if they’re clients,” he said. “They don’t care if the branch is profitable or not, and they don’t care. We’re somewhere in the middle.”

Salas predicted there are going to be fewer branches overall in the market in the future, not only because there are going to be fewer banks but because the number of branches per bank is going to decrease as well.

Cort O’Haver, President and CEO of Umpqua Holdings Corporation, said this month during his Fireside Chat at Bank Innovation Ignite in Seattle that his bank simply can’t compete with the big banks when it comes to technology spend, but that he has more freedom to pick his battles carefully. The goal, he said, is to continue adding customers in Umpqua’s market.

“If I can get one more customer than JPMorgan is getting in the communities I’m serving, I’m winning,” O’Haver said.

He said Umpqua will continue innovating around the areas where it can leverage technology to provide better services, with a human touch. He said Umpqua won’t be going all-digital, nor will it be adding only physical branches, but he also said maintaining an actual footprint is still important.

“People want people,” O’Haver said, adding the bank can work on the digital side of banking and the face-to-face side of banking to “create a unique experience.”

Then there are challengers to the entire branch banking paradigm, like South Africa-based digital bank TymeBank. Co-founder and CEO Coenraad Jonker told Bank Innovation that change often looks far away until the day it happens, and then it’s dramatic.

“I can see a future in a number of countries where branches go the way of music shops and become kind of a quaint thing, like something you would find in an interesting neighborhood at a street corner,” he said.

Still, TymeBank makes use of physical kiosks where customers can open an account and receive a personalized debit card in minutes with no documentation — just a fingerprint.

“Beyond account opening, TymeKiosk provides a physical point of presence that generates a sense of security and permanency — a critical differentiator in markets where regulators and customers distrust purely online financial services,” a brochure from the bank said. “Once opened, Tyme solves the cash management problem by enabling customers to cash-in and out at partner retailers through the integration of TymeCode, a tokenization application, at retailer till points.”

Jonker said there are some potential markets, such as China, where the bank could skip the step of providing a plastic product to customers who are already comfortable with digital payments, thereby eliminating the need for a physical presence altogether. He said the bank would have made a big mistake by jumping to an entirely digital offering in markets like South Africa, where cash is still the primary payment method for most transactions.

“Our job is to be agnostic, not to bet on you choosing another way,” he said.