(Yicai Global) March 14 -- China has seen a wave of bank outlet closures across the country in recent years as the increased adoption of online financial services has resulted in fewer visits to local branches.

Some 326 bank branches closed between last October and January, data from local banking regulators show, and the rise of internet finance has also led to a lower reliance on bank branches among corporate clients also.

China's banking regulator approved the closure of some 1,426 branches last year, a rise from 869 the year before, official data shows. This is in sharp contrast to the declining number of approvals for new banking outlets. Some 2,710 new branches opened last year, down from 3,567 in 2016.

"Regulators have not yet rejected any applications for closing banking outlets. However, if the trend of scaling back on outlets continues, it will be unclear how the situation could develop in the future," a vice president of a branch of a leading state-owned bank told Yicai Global.

The decrease in the number of physical banking outlets has been accompanied by a decline in the size of workforces in the sector. "The number of customers visiting our sub-branch for business banking has been in decline since last year, and demand for teller services has also fallen substantially," an employee at a sub-branch of a bank in Beijing told Yicai Global.

"Most clients visiting our outlet are elderly people. Only the elderly rely heavily on physical banking outlets," the teller said.

Though the total number of bricks-and-mortar banks has not decreased significantly, big changes have been made to their functions and to their internal division of labor, the vice president told Yicai Global.

"More tellers have come out from behind their counters to teach customers how to use electronic machines and to market products to them," he said, adding that he believes this kind of bank employee will become client managers, product managers and wealth management managers in the future.