Paperless Banking Has Arrived

Well, not in the usual online sense.

In my few and far between visits to the bank, I've grown accustomed to the usual process of getting a queue number from the guard, going to the bank slip receptacle/table, filling out a couple of bank transaction slips, and then finally waiting for my number to flash on the screen behind the bank tellers before my transaction is entertained. 

And so, much to my pleasant surprise, I got a bit disoriented when I went to the Katipunan branch of my bank last week to find that the guard had no queue numbers with him, and the bank slip receptacle/table had no more forms. On top of the table was just a sign that advised people to "please proceed to the CTA machine for your transaction." 

I assumed, given that my visits to the bank were few and far between, that those CTA machines were fairly recent technological introductions to that particular branch, as they still looked as if they had just been installed. I also assumed that a lot of other people got confused (like I did, I just tried to hide it), since there was still an assistant orienting the bank clients about how to go about using the machines. 

The assistant started off with "Ma'am, we've gone paperless."

Well, not entirely. Basically, the CTA machine is a pretty fancy queue ticket dispenser. With a touch screen interface, it asks you several things about why you've gone to the bank. After you've input all your relevant transaction information, the machine issues a tiny slip of paper containing your queue number. Now all you had to do was get that slip of paper, wait for your number to flash on the screen, approach the counter, and the bank teller would already know about the transaction you're about to make. 

The whole system is so efficient that it makes one think happily of the long term environmental implications in terms of curbing paper consumption, as well as of the more immediate and direct impact on convenience. Instead of grabbing a slip of paper and going through the tedious process of writing and rewriting various items on the sheet of paper, all you need to do now is just to punch some letters and numbers into a screen, and the system takes care of the rest for you. 

It's about time this sort of setup came along! I've actually seen similar banking systems of this sort (but only in a 24-hour bank payment center, and not as sophisticated as those CTA machines since the technology has become dated), but I guess I got used to the idea that only foreign banks could afford making banking easier for its clients. 

Innovations like these have been a long time coming, so it's refreshing to be so surprised to see that they've finally arrived. It's only a matter of time before such a setup will turn commonplace and become the standard for facilitating transactions in banks. 

And in all my happiness at how quick and hassle-free my visit had been, I forgot to ask what exactly "CTA" stood for.