Barclays to rollout first UK video banking service

Barclays has announced plans to introduce video banking.

The new service will allow face-to-face meetings to take place via a customer's smartphone, tablet or computer at their convenience.

Rollout schedule

From 8th December the service will be available to Premier customers of the bank, while mortgage, business and wealth customers can expect to gain access to the service early in 2015. A specific date has not yet been confirmed.

Eventually, Barclays plans to make video banking accessible for all its retail customers too, and says it will automatically match a person up with a member of staff they have previously spoken with, so long as that person is available.

When can I make a call?

Barclays says that video banking will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it more convenient than coming into a branch.

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Steven Cooper, CEO of Personal Banking at Barclays said: "We will finally be able to interact with customers completely on their terms, rather than ours."

Citing the increased use of digital channels to complete transactions, Mr Cooper argued that "for the important moments, you just can't beat face-to-face conversations."

However, there is speculation that this move could lead to further branch closures and job losses. Barclays has already closed a significant number of branches this year, and is not the only high street bank to have done so.

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