Barclays Video Banking

British bank Barclays is launching the UK's first remote video banking service, allowing customers to get face time with advisors at any hour of the day on their mobile phones.

The bank's wealthier Premier customers will be the first to trial the service from December 8, when they will be invited to have their annual account review with a relationship manager remotely.

The move responds to rising consumer demand for mobile banking services and increased competition from non-traditional services such as Venmo – see Bite-Size Banking for more.

Steven Cooper, Barclays' chief executive of personal banking, said: "While many of our customers are increasingly using digital channels to complete routine transactions, for the important moments you just can't beat face-to-face conversations, yet traditional branch opening hours don't always give customers that choice."

The service will eventually be rolled out to all retail banking customers 24/7 by the end of next year – a "watershed moment" for the way people do their banking, Barclays claims.