一直以來，屬於銀行的很多舊式辦公場所變成了牛排館，小酒館，傢俱店和酒吧。例如Bowery Savings Bank成爲了超豪華的Cipriani餐廳。在賓夕法尼亞州，一家已經倒閉的當地銀行的前總部變成了“Torte Knox。”

據美國專業網站The Financial Brand報道，O Bee 信用合作社，這家位於華盛頓州的金融機構卻別出心裁，創意性將啤酒和銀行業務結合了起來。

O Bee 信用合作社最初成立的目的是爲奧林匹亞釀酒公司的員工服務，在一家釀酒廠的位置，O Bee Credit Union改造了從KeyBank獲得的一家分店。

當客戶第一次走進O Bee Credit Union的最新分店時，會感覺彷彿走進了釀酒廠的品酒室。該設計融入了多種感官體驗。

首先，有視覺。櫃檯採用了黃銅欄杆的裝飾，啤酒龍頭手柄帶有工藝啤酒的名稱和標誌，但可惜不提供免費的啤酒。

原始的磚牆 - 在原始啤酒廠中找到了靈感，相應的標牌則喚起了“酒吧”的感覺。外面有霓虹燈標誌，可以拿起舊的奧林匹亞“幸運馬蹄鐵”標誌。一個酒吧風格的黑板寫着當天的特色 - 不是香腸和土豆泥或香腸卷，而是“滾燙的汽車貸款”，房車貸款“有冒險的一面”，以及“高年化收益”。

然後是聽覺。 在分店的ATM大廳，有一種無比的聲音效果，迴盪在啤酒廠。 這是瓶子在裝瓶室裏嘎嘎作響的聲音。

最後加入香氣。  幾年前，一些金融機構開始在他們的公共場所烘烤餅乾，來獲得它留下的香甜氣味。 “ 啤酒花是嗅覺體驗的新事物，並且絕對是銀行業的第一次。” Wojnar帶着一絲自豪感說，“氣味發生器”讓房間充滿了微弱的啤酒花氣味。

O Bee—現在爲華盛頓的27,000多名會員提供服務，對於那些抱怨銀行讓自己看起來像酒吧的少數人，Wojnar說信用合作社的回應是這樣的：“我們不是在慶祝酗酒。我們正在慶祝過去。我們成立於啤酒廠的一個瓶子裏。我們不會否認我們的歷史。“

這裏有另一種聯繫。“如果你真的想到一家酒吧，它就是一個聚會場所，一個交流思想的地方。”

實際上，歷史上美國的一些金融機構開始是企業家的信貸授予或直接貸款活動，其主要收入最初來自其他企業，比如一般商店，甚至是酒吧。

O Bee的啤酒與超過兩個啤酒廠分店合作過，其設計將擴展到信用合作社的其他分行。

其他幾個啤酒品牌在該地區具有歷史意義，包括Rainier Beer。 這些品牌裝飾了O Bee銀行卡和T恤。 這些襯衫可以由分支機構的訪客購買 - 無論是否爲會員 - 將收益捐贈給慈善機構。 員工可以在週五穿着它們。

對於不想使用啤酒品牌卡的持卡人，信用合作社還提供其他設計。

根據Wojnar的說法，O Bee已經享受了幾年的兩位數增長，“我們正在進軍新一代，”他說，顯然正在享受當下的大好局面

附The Financial Brand 網站報道原文如下：

For years, former banking offices have been turned into steakhouses, bistros, furniture stores, and bars. In Manhattan, for example, the old Bank of the Metropolis became the Blue Water Grill, and Bowery Savings Bank became the Cipriani restaurant. In tiny Hawley, Pennsylvania, the former headquarters of a defunct local bank became “Torte Knox.” Something about vaults seems to inspire culinary artists.

O Bee Credit Union has flipped this trend around. Instead of closing branches and letting someone else turn them into bars and restaurants, the $300 million institution based in Washington State is using a brewpub design to revamp its branch experience.

The credit union was originally founded to serve employees of the Olympia Brewing Co., but changed its name to “O Bee” (a phonetic abbreviation for the initials in “Olympia Brewing”) in an effort to serve a broader audience after the brewer shuttered operations.

In one brewhouse location, O Bee Credit Union gutted and revamped a branch acquired from KeyBank. The latest, in an up-and-coming suburban neighborhood, was built from scratch.

Lee Wojnar, VP/Marketing for O Bee, says the credit union has tweaked the concept with each location, taking experiential marketing in branch banking in new directions — blending a little bit of Disney with a nod to history, heritage and hops.

When you first walk into O Bee Credit Union’s newest branch, you feel as if you had walked into the tasting room of a brewery. The design engages multiple senses.

First, there is the visual. The teller line features brass rails and accents just like you’d find in a typical neighborhood hangout. But the allusions to the credit union’s brewing roots don’t stop there. Beer tap handles bearing the names and logos of craft brews line the front of the “teller bar.” No free brew, unfortunately, but Wojnar says one beer tap in the branch dispenses water — pull all you want.

Raw brick walls — found in the original brewery that inspired the branch — and corresponding signage evokes the “pub” feeling. Outside there are neon signs that pick up the old Olympia “lucky horseshoe” logo. A barroom style chalkboard promotes the specials of the day — not bangers and mash or sausage rolls, but “piping hot auto loans,” RV loans “with a side of adventure,” and high annual percentage yields “on tap.” Photos of the old Olympia Brewery and its workers, beer barrels, and more punctuate the experience.

Then there’s the auditory. In the branch’s ATM lobby, there are clinking sound effects, recorded in a brewery. It’s the sounds of bottles rattling along conveyors through a bottling room, entering empty and leaving the Olympia brewery, in the mind’s eye.

Then add in an aroma. Wojnar says, with a touch of pride, that the theme “goes to the nose” with “scent generators” that fill the room with the faint smell of hops. A few years back some financial institutions began baking cookies in their lobbies for the homey smell it left. Others installed espresso machines to evoke the sensation of a local café. Hops is a new twist on the olfactory experience — most certainly a first in banking.

O Bee — now serving over 27,000 members across Washington — began as a true “mom and pop” credit union back in 1955. It was founded by Ted McGill, a worker in “Bottle House A” at the Olympia Brewery, after learning about credit unions. He eventually jawboned fellow workers into getting one started for brewery employees.

In the early years, he ran the institution out of his home, reconciling the day’s transactions with the help of his wife. Eventually Olympia Brewery provided space on its premises.

For the few who have complained about a financial institution making itself over to look like a bar, Wojnar says the credit union’s response has been along these  lines: “We’re not celebrating alcohol. We’re celebrating the past. We were founded in a bottle house in a brewery. We’re not going to deny our history.”