The Impact of ‘Telemediated’ Services on Corporate Structures: The Example of ‘Branchless’ Retail Banking in Britain

In this paper we assess the spatial impact of ‘branchless’ retail banking which integrates telecommunications and computer technology to provide personal financial services remotely. We show that, in Britain, financial institutions are concentrating retail services into a small number of low-cost sites on the edge of cities in the north of the country, and exporting the services to more expensive locations. Associated with locational shifts is a rationalisation of corporate hierarchies and the introduction of a more ‘entrepreneurial’ approach to selling bank services, involving new types of gender-segmented work.