National Australia Bank is taking a very different approach from rival ANZ, which is currently trialling voice recognition to encourage mobile banking at the expense of branches – while NAB has invested $6 million in its central-Sydney flagship branch.

The branch now has an Apple Store-style layout,  complete with a cafe, open-plan meeting areas, and hands-on tech bars at which staff coach customers in online banking, according to an AAP newswire report. This follows an earlier Apple-style rejig of its Docklands, Melbourne outlet.

NAB says the new-style approach will be rolled out elsewhere if it proves successful.

Despite the growth of mobile and Internet banking, the branch network remains a key asset for traditional banks, according to NAB chief customer officer Andrew Hagger. Indeed he reckons rejigged branches can help the move to digital.

Quoth Hagger: “We know customers want to do a lot of everyday things through digital means if they can just be shown how to do that. For some people, digital functionality is intuitive, for others it’s good to have a guiding hand” – which hopefully they will get at the Apple-style rejigged branches.