Article

Interactive tellers transport small FIs to the big leagues

Technology from NCR helps CUs and community banks achieve scalability.

August 16, 2013 by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

Since its market introduction in April 2012, the NCR APTRA Interactive Teller has been most frequently deployed by small to regional-sized banks and credit unions. These account for 70 percent to 85 percent of installations through mid-May of this year, according to Brian Bailey, vice president and general manager of NCR branch transformation.

"[S]maller institutions, credit unions and community banks — they're mobilizing quicker around decision-making with the technology," he said in an interview with ATM Marketplace. "I think it's just the fact of their size and their nimbleness in terms of senior management at the bank making this sort of commitment."

Inside every small bank is a bigger bank trying to get out

Small banks like the fact that the technology allows them to act like bigger banks, Bailey said. He gave the example of one of the first adopters of the technology was BrandBank, a North Metro Atlanta FI with $1.3 billion in assets. 

"They use the terminal to increase their physical presence and their brand presence," Bailey said. "As opposed to building traditional branches, they can put down these incremental devices to expand their presence and their transactional capability.

"We originally marketed and deployed the solution as a true teller automation technology in the branch. But I think what we're finding is that there's actually as much interest now in deploying the devices for actual distribution expansion."

Bailey said that FIs were also finding utility for the technology in capital-light or small branch footprint models — i.e., the "reinvented branch." Instead of a traditional $3 million branch, banks are building $500,000 branches, "and then using this new technology, they have an operating model for that new branch that is roughly one-half of the traditional branch in terms of the cost to operate," he said.

Operative term: 'interactive'

What gives the APTRA Interactive Teller its power and versatility is that word right there in the middle: "interactive." The software platform developed by uGenius (a company that NCR purchased last December) allows the teller to exercise true remote control over the machine, enabling a remote transaction just as if it were happening across a teller counter.

Forgot your ATM card? No biggie. The machine can scan your drivers license for ID and the teller can confirm your identity just as she would in-branch, by asking for account information that only the owner would know.

Need vacation cash in excess of the allowed daily limit? The remote teller can verify your current account balance and override the machine limit to dispense your $1,000.

The remote teller can also provide information about services and products that can solve a customer's problem or improve their banking experience in general, and that can be a tremendous boon for sales, Bailey said.

"Coastal Federal Credit Union experienced an 87 percent increase in sales agent productivity at the branch level and we think this is directly correlated to the warm leads and referrals from the interactive teller conversation."

Major banks come to the party

Top 10 banks are just beginning to use the technology, Bailey said. And an initial deployment by a major bank is providing NCR with valuable information about how they perceive the value of the technology.

But it seems to be an established fact that small banks will continue to employ NCR Interactive Teller to "act big."

"I think you're going to find some pretty ambitious projects that are coming that will actually allow some smaller banks to start keeping pace with the sort of scale that the larger banks have," Bailey said. "And we think that's a really exciting area to watch in terms of how this affects the overall branch transformation strategy."

View a case study about APTRA Interactive Teller deployment at FirstOntario Credit Union a $3.6 billion institution serving nearly 90,000 members through 23 branches:

Read more about ATM installation and deployment.

Photo by Wikimedia.

About Suzanne Cluckey

---

Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.