[sixhobbits]

The Author has a broad reputation around here for knowing what he is talking about, so I think 'I run banks' might need more context if you really want this to be an appeal to authority argument, especially as your HN bio doesn't support the claim that you run banks and 'running banks' isn't really a role

[jwr]

Well, to be fair, The Author has a broad reputation for authoritatively saying things about banking and is a HN celebrity, which does not necessarily mean he works at a bank or knows one from the inside.

I read the article, and the described model does not apply at all to countries with modern banking, e.g. for example Poland, which I know well. And this sentence: "The dominant engine for profitability of deposit accounts is net interest margin" is decidedly untrue here. Today, banks here do not want your money. What they seem to want (but I do not know this from the inside, just from observations) is a long-term relationship, so that they can sell "products" that involve fees (visible or hidden): cards, investment products from third parties, etc. Also, most modern banks have no tellers anymore here.

[sixhobbits]

That is fair and an actual argument with your opinion and some evidence while to me the parent was more 'Author is wrong, opposite is true, and I have more authority'

Appeal to authority is usually annoying but I just meant that if you do it you should appeal to a higher authority which I didnt really recognise in this case.

[solarengineer]

Regardless of the author's reputation, the point does stand that branches often cater to specific needs of the locality.

For e.g. bank branches in rural areas in India often understand rural needs and work with local government administration to offer special loans that have no place in cities (like loans for water pumps, seasonal loans to fund the transport of produce to central market places, etc). In a small city that I worked in, bank branches were aware that they would get lots of account holders visiting during "lunch time" at factories. Various factories ended up collaborating with the bank branches to have different lunch times so as to reduce the load of visitors at the branch. In Industrial locations within that same city, branches unofficially specialize in small loans to help suppliers tide over payment cycles of the large customers.

In another distant suburb of Mumbai that I lived in for many years, the local bank and its branches within that suburb had higher credibility than even nationalised banks! The Bank officers would be invited to attend local industrial meetings, township planning discussions, merchant meetings, etc. They learn from the meetings, arrange for special loan and financial packages. There are business communities where reputation is everything. Such business persons sometimes do visit a branch and ensure that certain cheques by clients get honoured while they present cash or hand over their business documents for hypothecation. In many suburbs and rural areas, bank branches provide a "daily deposit" collection service where a branch officer visits various businesses in the evening to collect cash for deposit into the current account. These are not part of the banks' official services, but are arrangements and accomodations made at local levels.

As an erstwhile small business owner, I had learned at a very young age of the importance of having a great working relationship with the local branch officers (tellers, other officers, the branch manager). We would invite them to events at our business, and they would attend, too.

My examples are all from specific regions in India that I have stayed in, but I do think that other parts of India as well as in the world (including in the US) would have specialised needs that an "online" presence would not adequately cater to.