Digitalizing Bank Branches with a New Multichannel Standard to Address Office Closures in Europe

The growing phenomenon of bank branch closures, driven by rising operational costs and the need to meet specific KPIs, is reducing access to banking services, especially in remote areas. At the same time, the adoption of new technologies, such as XR, opens up opportunities to rethink the branch experience from a digital perspective. However, the lack of a shared standard limits the development of scalable and interoperable solutions, leaving implementations to isolated initiatives by individual banks. To address this issue, we propose the concept of Open Branching, inspired by Open Banking, which has already transformed the financial sector through digitalization and the use of APIs. Open Branching extends this philosophy to physical branches, enabling the provision of all traditional banking services in a digital format, ensuring continuity in the user experience and greater accessibility. This approach facilitates the integration between the physical and digital worlds, enabling new interaction modes such as XR and the Metaverse. In collaboration with one of the leading Italian banks, within the MilanoHub program, we have developed and standardized a taxonomy of the main products and services offered in branches, classifying them by type and releasing it under an open-source license. This standard provides a structured foundation for implementing new ways of accessing banking services, allowing third-party operators to enhance the customer experience in traditional branches. The validity of the standard has been demonstrated through a case study focused on branch service access via the Metaverse, highlighting the potential of this innovation.