In an age when bankers are more scorned than politicians and few people know the name of their account manager, who would want to own a bank branch?

Plenty of people, according to Australia's smallest retail bank, Bank of Queensland, which is using a novel model of branches owned by their managers to fuel the fastest expansion of any financial institution in the country.

While the "Big Four" that dominate Australian banking have closed hundreds of outlets to the fury of unions and rural Australia, Bank of Queensland believes its growing Owner-Managed Branch network can bring the retail back into banking.

With start-up costs carried by the owner, but credit risk firmly controlled by headquarters, BOQ also sees the strategy as a cost-effective way to carve out niche markets in the regions and suburbs where the majors no longer deign to tread.

"What this model is about is service and that will be our point of differentiation," Bank of Queensland managing director David Liddy told Reuters.

"The 'face to face' is what we call our renaissance in banking," said Liddy, whose bank had A$6.6 billion ($3.7 billion) in assets under management at the end of August and who joined BOQ from Westpac Banking Corp, Australia's fourth biggest bank.

Returning to communities and getting personal with customers runs against the worldwide tide, in which centralised loan departments, call centres, virtual branches and electronic banking mean it is rarely necessary to visit a bank branch.

But some banking analysts say a revival in the service mentality, and experiments in franchising, are bearing dividends for other institutions such as Fifth Third Bancorp with its grocery store-based "Bank Marts" in the United States.

After opening a string of new outlets, Bank of Queensland now has 60 corporate branches and 42 owner-managed branches.

By August next year, the bank intends to have 60 of each in its native Queensland and will then start sniffing at other areas, such as New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

The owner-managers sublease branches from Bank of Queensland and pay it for the furniture, fittings and technology needed to run a branch. Start-up costs vary but local media have put them at between A$150,000 and A$700,000, depending on the branch.

The carefully selected owner-managers have discretion over staffing levels and make their money through flexible revenue-sharing arrangements with corporate headquarters.

They say they do far better as entrepreneurs than they would as salaried staff.

While the managers can dish out consumer loans freely according to computerised risk models, riskier corporate loans remain under the control of Bank of Queensland.

Personal motivation, closeness to the community and solidarity with other small businesses provide a recipe that allows new branches to break even in a year, the managers say, compared with up to three years for the average corporate branch.

Furthermore, in communities smarting after being abandoned by the big banks, they can guarantee to business customers that they will be their account manager for many years to come.

"We treat the customer as a customer, not as an account number," said Tony Arnold, owner-manager of a brand new Bank of Queensland branch in the suburb of Windsor.

"It's what banking was 15 to 20 years ago. The bank manager will never have the profile that a bank manager had, they were held very highly in the community, these days you want to hide sometimes...but what you're saying is 'Hey, I'm around.'"

When Arnold began his rounds visiting corporate customers, he almost gave them heart attacks: few had ever met their bank manager and if they had, it was for the wrong reason.

"It will knock them over every time," he chuckled. The Owner-Managed Branch model has found some fans among banking analysts who cover Bank of Queensland.

"We think it's a very sound strategy," said Stephen Walsh of Macquarie Research Equities.

"Prospectively there's a bit of risk in that model so controlling the risk is critical and they have done that by retaining the power to veto (corporate loans)."

Some analysts remain unconvinced, noting that rapid growth places huge capital pressures on a small regional bank that has to compete in the equity markets with giants 10 times its size.

The model may work when times are good, and mortgage sales are booming. But revenue generation could become trickier for branch owners saddled with start-up costs when the economy turns.

Liddy dismissed the concerns. "It's working," he said. "Time will tell but the early signs are very good."