It might seem perplexing when imagining a American bank, but from the perspective of Swedish banks, it make perfect sense. Any direct contact with customer is a cost center. Dealing with people, dealing with physical cash, checks, just having a office in city areas. It is all just very expensive. It is much cheaper to just have an online service with online products that get processed without human involvement.

The result in Sweden is almost 40% less offices in the last 10 years and only a handful in existence that handle physical cash. Customers are a bit less satisfied but you can't really live in Sweden without having a bank account so what are people really to do but accept the change. Banks profits are up so the trend is likely to continue.