Alfa-Bank will shift 20% of its offices to customer service without passports, cards and paper records within two and a half years, the bank’s CEO Vladimir Verkhoshinskiy told RBC.

The bank plans to develop the concept until the year-end, after which the pilot versions will be tested. Verkhoshinskiy has added that other banks do not provide this type of service.

“As soon as we consider that the bank is ready, we’ll start scaling the project. I hope that no less than 20% of our 400 offices will have been shifted to the new format by the end of 2021,” he said.

Smartphone and biometric data will be used for client identification. During the transaction at the office, the client will receive a notification on the phone, which the client can open via Face ID or Touch ID. The online version of the agreement will be submitted to the client via the mobile app. According to Vladimir Verkhoshinskiy, it is too early to announce the cost of introduction of this service.

According to experts, abandoning identification by paper records will not accelerate the bank’s work substantially. The banks can get much better results by introducing remote identification and service without visits to the offices, because it will both reduce operational costs and notably improve the customer experience.

Another group of experts believes that the shift to the new format of offices will actually save the bank substantial amounts in the long run. RBC concludes that upon summarizing the 2012 strategy, Alfa-Bank will probably carry on the project.

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