By 2012, the banking industry had spent two or three decades educating customers to teach them that banking is an impersonal transaction which takes place via ATM machines and the internet, and never, ever, ever involves talking to a bank teller behind a counter. They've been trying to de-personalize banking since back when I got my first ATM card in 1983 or so.
Yea, the story isn't how banking online is anonymous and magic, its about how branch banking is extremely regional, and how few of them deal with "pre money" startup financing, and were _structurally_ unprepared to handle it. "I have 35M but need to slowly spend it down until the next funding round" is not what most businesses in LA look like, and the cash infusion presumably allowed the bank to expand lending in the area, and business banking. And when those funds leave, well, there might even have been layoffs.
> They've been trying to de-personalize banking since back when I got my first ATM card in 1983 or so.
For personal banking, absolutely. But the property management business I bought, and then sold, had dedicated account managers at both banks we used, and both they (and the previous owner of my company) had an expectation of personal contact and fairly regular conversations--both because our customers also used those banks, but also just because it's the norm.
