Westpac wants to 'bank with intimacy', opens new-look King William St, Marion branches Westpac's retail banking general manager Gai McGrath; paralympian Katrina Webb and 80 King William Street bank manager Sean Riley at the launch on Monday night. Pic: Supplied Source: The Advertiser WESTPAC wants to "bank with intimacy" 24/7, spending over a million dollars on its King William Street and Marion branches to emphasise its reliance on grassroots financial transacting. Both the branches were officially launched this week, adopting an open plan, more trusting layout, KWS bank manager Sean Riley said. The new design and approach is banking with intimacy that really builds relationships between my team and our customers. The 24/7 zone is a unique offering and I'm seeing daily how to benefits local business, along with our other technology offerings within the branch. Glass security screens and wide counters that separated customers from staff have disappeared and so have the chained pens to be replaced with iPads, digital touch-screens, smarter ATMs and face-to-face service. Westpac state manager Richard Hockney said mobile banking was changing banking at the branches but was not going to replace it. Some commentators have predicted the death of the branch in the digital world but nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are we confident about the future of branches, we also know this is exactly the type of face-to-face service that our customers are asking for.