{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/new-accounts-clerks/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "New Accounts Clerks", "soc_code": "43-4141", "category": "Office", "us_employment": 36860, "median_annual_wage": 47670 }, "verdict": "COOKED", "risk_resistance": 22, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 4, "embodiment": 4, "liability_shield": 3, "trust_premium": 7, "judgment_accountability": 4 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Opening a checking account, ordering debit cards, setting up direct deposit, and keying CIP data into Fiserv or Jack Henry are already end-to-end digital products at every major bank — the 4 rather than a 9 reflects that even the exception work (a rejected ChexSystems hit, a trust account signature card) is increasingly routed to a centralized ops team rather than the branch desk.", "embodiment": "The only physical acts are handling a driver's license or passport under a UV lamp, running a signature card through a scanner, and pointing at a safe deposit box — all inside a climate-controlled branch at a seated workstation, which is why this sits at 4 and not in the 5-12 band with tellers who handle cash drawers and vaults.", "liability_shield": "No state licence gates this work; a notary commission is common but notarizing costs $50 and protects the acknowledgment, not the account decision — BSA/CIP and Reg CC compliance liability lands on the bank and its BSA officer, and the 3 rather than 0 is only that notary appointment.", "trust_premium": "Some customers do ask for the person who opened their mother's estate account, and cross-sell numbers do depend on rapport at the desk — but the 7 rather than 13 is because most new-account relationships are one transaction long and the ongoing relationship transfers to a personal banker or the app.", "judgment_accountability": "Decisions here run off written scripts: CIP documentary requirements, the ChexSystems decline matrix, and the officer-approval threshold for waiving a fee or overriding a hold — the 4 rather than 8 reflects that anything genuinely ambiguous, like a suspicious-activity concern or a nonresident alien account, escalates to a branch manager or BSA officer by policy." }, "rationale": "The core of this job — collecting applicant information, keying it into the core banking system, running ID and credit checks, explaining rate sheets and fee schedules, and generating signature cards — is exactly what online and mobile account-opening flows already do without a human. What remains is the in-branch moment: physically inspecting a driver's license, notarizing, reassuring an anxious older customer, and untangling the cases where the automated flow rejected someone. Branch consolidation compounds the software pressure, so headcount falls even where the tasks technically survive.", "outlook": "Expect continued double-digit decline in this title over ten years as digital onboarding absorbs the paperwork; the surviving jobs are re-badged as personal or relationship bankers with fraud-review and licensed-sales duties attached.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "FinCEN CIP/CDD rules currently let banks verify identity non-documentarily; a rule (or OCC/FDIC exam expectation) requiring documentary in-person verification with a named bank employee attesting to inspection of the physical ID for accounts above a risk threshold — analogous to the beneficial-ownership certification form under 31 CFR 1010.230 — would put a specific human's name on the file. State notary law is the other hinge: states that have NOT adopted remote online notarization (or that restrict RON for account/signature-card execution) keep a commissioned human physically required, and notary commissions carry personal liability and bond.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Task-mix shift is real here and already visible: the straightforward openings are gone to app flows, so what reaches a human is the exception tier — CIP mismatches, thin-file and ITIN applicants, fraud-flag overrides, elder-abuse and coercion red flags, trust/estate and small-business entity accounts where beneficial ownership must be untangled. If banks formally designate the branch role as the documented override authority for automated CIP/fraud rejections (a signed exception memo reviewable by examiners), the role owns consequential calls rather than keying data. Watch for adverse-action and fair-lending pressure making 'a human reviewed this rejection' an audit expectation.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Same two-tier mechanism: once routine keying is fully automated, measured residual work is exception handling, entity-account documentation, and suspicious-activity escalation, which current systems handle poorly. This raises the score without raising headcount — branch consolidation cuts the number of these jobs even as each remaining one gets harder.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Narrow route only: CFPB/state pressure on branch closures in underserved areas, plus state 'banking desert' bills and CRA branch-presence credit, sustain demand for an in-person opener for cash-preferring, limited-English, unbanked and elderly customers. This is a subsidized floor, not a premium buyers pay.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Even with every lever, this stays a low-scoring occupation. Liability and judgment attach to the bank and its BSA officer, not to the clerk, and there is no license or personal exposure to build on. The binding constraint is branch count, not task automation — headcount falls regardless of what happens to the score." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 41680, "wage": 35260 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 41500, "wage": 35800 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 43420, "wage": 36550 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 45250, "wage": 37750 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 40500, "wage": 37840 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 45170, "wage": 40820 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 41180, "wage": 44630 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 38030, "wage": 46610 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 36860, "wage": 47670 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -11.6, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "loan-officers", "title": "Loan Officers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 37, "median_wage": 76690, "overlap": 77, "skills_to_close": [ "Judgment and Decision Making", "Management of Material Resources", "Management of Financial Resources", "Critical Thinking" ] }, { "slug": "credit-counselors", "title": "Credit Counselors", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 39, "median_wage": 52230, "overlap": 71, "skills_to_close": [ "Systems Evaluation", "Active Learning", "Negotiation", "Complex Problem Solving" ] }, { "slug": "insurance-sales-agents", "title": "Insurance Sales Agents", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 45, "median_wage": 62280, "overlap": 71, "skills_to_close": [ "Negotiation", "Systems Evaluation", "Critical Thinking", "Persuasion" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }