Banking is becoming increasingly less personal, and customers seem to like it that way. At a time when bank branches are disappearing by the hundreds, many folks don't seem to care. In fact, an expansive survey shows that when it comes to the banking experience, institutions are far better off concentrating on creating great mobile experiences than on upgrading their physical locations. The preferences show up in a variety of ways: Customers are one-third more likely to enjoy a mobile transaction than a bank visit; those who use branches are three times more likely to switch banks than those who are infrequent visitors; a branch visit is 2.3 times more likely to end up with an annoyed customer than using an app. Those results came from a Bain financial services practice survey of 114,696 consumers in banks across the world. Read More Bye-bye branches: Banking hits 'inflection point'

"Mobile is definitely taking off in terms of usage, but it's also a consistently better experience," Gerard du Toit, a Bain partner who leads the firm's retail banking sector, said in an interview. "The younger generation is a little earlier in adopting, but the older generation is right behind them in terms of driving adoptions as well."

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Indeed, Mike Shaheen, a 59-year-old network and IT outsourcing executive from Dallas, describes himself as a "late adopter" who now relies heavily on his Chase banking app. Shaheen has four children including one attending college and one about to finish school. He uses the app both to send them money and handle their credit cards. He pays loans and keeps tabs on his own accounts. What he doesn't do a whole lot anymore is actually go to a bank, something he used to do several times a week. "In terms of my banking day-to-day activities, I never go into the branches anymore," Shaheen said. "Brick and mortar is pretty much a thing of the past." Branches are fading from the landscape, with 739 closing in the first six months of 2015 and 1,531 shuttering in the 12-month period ended with the second quarter, according to SNL Financial. JPMorgan Chase shut 138 alone and Bank of America closed 130 in the 12-month period. While some bemoan the declining human touch, branch banking is turning into a numbers game. At a time when banks are coping with higher costs and pressure to condense services, closing branches makes sense as a way to keep customers while lowering overhead.

Cutting off the branches Bank Branches Closings (Q3 '14-Q2 '15) JPMorgan Chase 5,550 138 Bank of America 4,842 130 PNC 2,777 60 Capital One 847 47 SunTrust 1,469 46 Wells Fargo 6,238 32 BancoSantander 723 29 M&T 875 26 Old National 172 20 US Bancorp 3,222 19