NEW ALBANY, Ohio — At PNC Bank’s new branch office in this Columbus suburb, you can make deposits, apply for a loan, or ask questions about retirement planning.

But a couple of key things are missing: tellers and the cash they dispense.

The office is PNC’s first tellerless branch in Ohio.

That’s not to say that the office isn’t staffed. A manager is on duty, as are a handful of financial consultants who can help customers open an account, check on account balances, or talk about retirement planning. There’s even space for small group meetings.

If you need to deposit a check or get cash, though, you’ll walk up not to a teller but to an ATM with enhanced capability that can handle routine transactions and is open around the clock. The ATM has the only cash in the office. Besides having no tellers, the new bank branch also has no drive-through.

The office, one of a handful that the Pittsburgh-based bank has rolled out, reflects how technology and customer habits have changed banking.

Customers who used to line up next to a velvet rope to cash checks and pay bills are doing more of those transactions online or at an ATM. In fact, more than half of PNC customers say they prefer to bank that way.

Yet customers tell the bank they still want an office where they can talk with someone.

“With this concept, we’re trying to bring back face-to-face banking with technology,” said Aissatou Faty Whybrew, the branch manager and a PNC vice president.

The idea of a tellerless office is to provide a place where customers can develop relationships and get help on an array of significant financial issues, said Sandy Zimmerman, a PNC executive vice president who heads PNC’s retail operations in central Ohio.

PNC isn’t the only bank that has been adjusting its approach to serving customers in branch offices. 

Banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Huntington Bancshares, have been deploying ATMs with enhanced capabilities that can do routine work in the office.

At the same time, the traditional model of a teller behind a window has given way to offices staffed with what are called “universal bankers” who can handle a variety of financial needs for customers. In those models, employees typically greet customers when they come in, ask what they would like to do, and either handle it themselves or get someone else to help. That would include routine teller functions of dispensing cash and handling deposits.

First Published June 21, 2016, 4:00 a.m.