Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. on Monday became the first of Japan's three megabanks to expand its reservation system for customers to all of its domestic branches.
The bank's customers can make reservations for such transactions as opening bank accounts at all domestic branches and a number of service counters, a total of 426 locations in all.
The move is aimed at reducing waiting time to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, as well as reducing the operational costs of branches.
Customers can make online reservations by entering information such as the branch, date, time, desired procedure and their name on a dedicated website using a personal computer or smartphone. Reservations can also be made by phone.
The reservation needs to be made by late afternoon of the business day preceding the visit. Two time periods -- 30 minutes or 1 hour -- are available. Reservations cannot be made for transactions that do not require time, such as deposits, withdrawals and wire transfers.
The bank initially introduced the reservation system on a trial basis in January last year. Prior to Monday's full expansion, it was available at about 300 locations as a countermeasure against the coronavirus at bank counters.
However, as some customers come to branches for procedures regarded as nonessential and nonurgent, the bank concluded it was necessary to take further steps in its efforts to prevent the spread of infections.
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