Bank teller
A bank teller (often abbreviated to simply teller) is an employee of a bank who deals directly with customers. In some places, this employee is known as a cashier or customer representative.[1] Most teller jobs require experience with handling cash and a high school diploma. Most banks provide on-the-job training.
Tellers are considered a "front line" in the banking business because they are typically the first people a customer sees at the bank.
Responsibilities and duties of the bank teller
Being front-line staff they are most likely to detect and stop fraudulent transactions in order to prevent losses at a bank (counterfeit currency and cheques, identity theft, confidence tricks, etc.). The position also requires tellers to be friendly and interact with the customers, providing them with information about customers' accounts and bank services. Tellers typically work from a station, usually located on a teller line. Most stations have a teller system, which includes cash drawers, receipt validator/printers, proof work sorters, and paperwork used for completing bank transactions. These transactions include:
- Check cashing, depositing, transfers, wire transfers
- Savings deposits, withdrawals
- Issuing negotiable items (cashier's checks, traveler's cheques, money orders, federal draft issuances, etc.)
- Payment collecting
- Promotion of the financial institution's products (loans, mortgages, etc.)
- Business referrals (trust, insurance, lending, etc.)
- Cash advances
- Savings bond redemption. Paper savings bonds can no longer be purchased, only electronic bonds are available for purchase now, so banks can no longer issue bonds.
- Resolving customer issues
- Balancing the vault, cash drawers, ATMs, and TAUs
- Batching and Processing Proof Work (On-Us/Not-On-Us Checks, Payment Coupons, Counter Slips, etc.)
- May include ordering products for the customer (cheques, deposit slips, etc.)
Prevalence and history
In the United States, tellers held approximately 608,000 jobs in 2006. Of these, 1 out of 4 worked part-time. Median annual earnings as of May 2006 were $22,140.[2]
The number of tellers in the United States increased from approximately 300,000 in 1970 to approximately 600,000 in 2010. Counter-intuitively, a contributing factor may be the introduction of automated teller machines. ATMs let a branch operate with fewer tellers, making it cheaper for banks to open more branches. This likely resulted in more tellers being hired to handle non-automated tasks, but further automation and online banking may reverse this increase.[3]
Celebrities who are former Bank Tellers
Many well-known personalities have worked as bank tellers including:
See also
- Automated teller machine (ATM)
- Front office (finance)
- Cashier
References
- "Scotiabank Jobs".
- "Tellers". Occupational Outlook Handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- Tess Townsend (May 8, 2017). "Eric Schmidt said ATMs led to more jobs for bank tellers. It's not that simple". Recode.
- "Celebrities Who Worked In Finance Before They Became Famous".
- "9 Boring Jobs Celebrities Had Before They Were Famous".