Branch Tomorrow
A bold wake-up call for banks, fintechs, and policymakers to rethink everything before it’s too late.
Get the book now!
Why should I read it?
Richard contributed the China chapter to Branch Tomorrow, Brett King’s landmark new book on the global death of the branch model.
From empty teller windows to grey-haired customers, Richard brings 16 years of living in Shanghai to bear on a question the rest of the world is only beginning to ask. China already answered it.
Bank branches are fading. Digital-first finance is the new baseline. And no region on earth shows this more clearly than China, where WeChat and Alipay didn’t just change how people pay, they made the branch irrelevant for an entire generation.
What the book covers
Branch Tomorrow is a wake-up call for banks, fintechs and policymakers still betting on foot traffic.
Brett King, the most widely read author in banking over the last decade, assembles a global team of contributors to map where branches are dying, where they are still growing and why, and what digital-first survival actually looks like.
From AI to mobile wallets to crypto to embedded finance, this is the unfiltered truth about what comes next.
Richard’s contribution
Where is the collapse of the branch model most visible? China.
Richard’s chapter shows how China’s branches, already hollowed out by the WeChat and Alipay revolution, are being rebuilt for a world where digital is the default.
The number of branches in China is still rising, but what they are building today looks nothing like what came before.
That is the story the West needs to read
Discover what it really takes to stay relevant
The Branches of Tomorrow reveals why digital-first isn’t a trend — it’s the new baseline for survival.
Video
“There is no way for China banks to recover.”
Watch Richard explain why China’s branch collapse is permanent, and what that means for the rest of the world.