Yes. At least, that’s ostensibly how things were right-up until the mid-2000s when online banking (and then covid) upended retail banking - but the general gist

Yes. At least, that’s ostensibly how things were right-up until the mid-2000s when online banking (and then covid) upended retail banking - but the general gist of the story is: The introduction of ATMs meant that a branch could be operated by far fewer people than before, which reduces their operating costs - but more importantly: the investment or business risk involved in opening a new branch in the first place. Where previously a branch could only be opened in a city with a population big enough to supply, say, 10 branch employees, after the introduction of ATMs it becomes possible to open far more branches in more cities and locations as only, say, 3 people, would be needed to run it. So previously there would be a smaller number of larger branches, now there’s a larger number of smaller branches, but more people employee overall.