Paperless Banking On The Way Up

The other day, I was surprised when I visited a branch of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) near my place. It has been a while that I did not visit any BPI branch because I do not have any transaction that would require my going physically to the bank. Being used to getting a queue card from the door guard and filling-up deposit and/or withdrawal slips, I asked for them from the guard on duty but instead of giving me the documents, I was directed to a touch-screen computer terminal.

I was lucky that I am computer literate enough to use the terminal or else I will be like the others who was able to get their queue numbers with the help of bank personnel tasked to help depositors who cannot manage to use the new system by themselves. The new queuing system requires the bank customer to enter the transactions (deposit, withdrawal, etc.) he intends to do, the bank account number and the amount involved. A small piece of thermal paper with the queue number and the intended transaction details will come out of the terminal after the information are correctly entered.

To say the least, the paper saved using the new system may not be that much but this is definitely a commendable move by my bank in helping the conservation of our dwindling natural resources. By the way, this is already the second paperless procedure that BPI implemented with its customers. The first one was the option of a depositor to stop the mailing of his monthly statement of accounts and look at it in the Internet instead. I hope that you banks are doing the same. As citizens of the world, we should all do our parts in the conservation of our natural resources like trees which is the raw material in the manufacture of paper.