No Vault, No Tellers : Automated Mini-Bank Debuts in Mission Viejo

Customers will be in for a few shocks when Wells Fargo Bank’s new Mission Viejo branch opens Monday.

First, its hours: The branch will be open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. Then, its size: The tiny, 1,140-square foot branch is only about 20% of a traditional bank office. There’s no lobby, vault or note department to take up space.

But the capper is the staff: There are no human tellers. Instead, two automated teller machines have been installed to take deposits and spit out withdrawals.

Rounding out the staff will be two new-account officers and, sitting in glass-walled offices at opposite ends of the tiny facility, two personal-banking officers.

The new facility is the fourth such automated bank branch in the Wells Fargo system but the first in Southern California. Most other major banks, and many smaller ones as well, offer their own convenience banking centers and personal and consumer banking officers. But Wells Fargo appears to go a step further in the effort to reduce expenses and gain new depositors at the same time.

Consumer Oriented

Officially called the Lake Mission Viejo Personal Banking Center, the office is a consumer-oriented branch stripped of all the traditional commercial trappings and offering intensely personalized customer service, convenient hours and automation.

It is designed to grab new customers and keep them by offering a level of service that many people cannot get in a traditional branch, said Roni Hesseling, the Wells assistant vice president and personal banking officer in charge of the facility.

Although Mission Viejo is a community with relatively high per-capita income, the branch is open to anyone, she said, and all customers--whether they earn $20,000 a year or $20,000 a week--will be assigned a personal banking officer.

Part of the officer’s job will be to answer customers’ questions and help them fill out loan applications, learn to use the automated tellers and otherwise serve as a personal contact inside the bank.

But they also are expected to aggressively push the bank’s consumer financial products--such as credit cards, loans, certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts and discount brokerage services--and to generate new deposits and bring in new customers.

Eye on Profits

Although its surface image is that of a customer service product, the branch also is expected to generate profits for the bank, largely through reduced overhead costs and the sale of financial products, said Thomas Peterson, vice president and regional manager of Wells Fargo’s Southern California area.

Peterson said the new office also marks a new era of retail expansion for Wells Fargo in Southern California. The bank has closed 32 Southland branches since September, 1983.

The facility does have not the furnishings of a traditional branch. As a result, Wells will be able to open it at a total cost of less than $200,000, versus $750,000 to $1 million for a full-service retail and commercial office, said Peterson.

In addition, Wells was able to save money by signing up for a five-year lease, rather than one of 20 years or more, as is standard for bank offices.

The small size of the building further reduced the lease costs, while payroll will be significantly reduced by requiring customers to use the automated teller machines for all deposits, withdrawals, account transfers and credit card payments, Peterson said.