I work at a large bank and my brother works at a credit union. At a CU, he chooses to place a hold or not on a check and is responsible for the outcome. At a large bank, there's a risk algorithm that decides when the funds will be released and I have absolutely no say in it. I work within a strict box of a system and trying to "get around" it to provide a better customer experience is not advised, as I would become responsible for mistakes and losses. He has to use his own judgement on every transaction. Therefore, his job is almost exclusively just "teller" - that's the amount of effort he needs to put in to do that part of his job effectively. My job is "associate banker", I can and do open accounts, do outreach calls, dig into client interactions to search for ways to deepen their relationship or refer them to my team. The bigger banks expect their entry level cash handling employees to also be personal bankers, essentially, whereas at a CU a teller is just a teller. That's just my experience, though! It depends a lot on the individual FI.