One of the quieter revolutions going on in the payments world is Remote Deposit Capture (RDC), the process of depositing checks electronically without ever going to a bank branch. The paper check is slowly going the way of the dodo–many banks now do electronic conversion of checks that customers have deposited. RDC takes this one step further by eliminating the need to physically deposit paper checks in their banks.
I've previously written a short piece (here) about RDC that covers it more detail, but until I read about USAA's RDC iPhone app, I don't think I appreciated degree to which RDC could shake up retail banking. We're just at the beginning of RDC (which has been growing like mad), but it is going to rapidly antiquate the retail bank branch, create truly nation competition for deposits (beyond brokered deposits and CDs), and help even the competitive playing field between large and small banks.