ITMs & Instant-Issue Kiosks: 5 Things Credit Unions Should Know

Many credit unions have eagerly embraced self-service technology over the years, but today that technology can do a whole lot more than just spit out cash or deliver account balances. Thanks to streaming technologies, biometrics and other advances, self-service banking technology is rising to a new level of intelligent design – and it could go mainstream at any moment. Here’s what experts said credit unions should know about two popular self-service trends converging on the credit union industry: Interactive teller machines (ITMs) and instant-issue kiosks.

You may need to retrain or move tellers.

Video conferencing ATMs are here, according to Bejan Nouri, an account executive at the Sarasota, Fla.-based CSF International, which makes ATM software. Typically, these so-called ITMs provide two levels of self-service: The ability to summon a human teller via video to help handle a transaction, and the ability to complete traditional ATM transactions, such as withdraw money. That kind of self-service could change how and where some credit union tellers do their jobs.

The Roanoke, Va.-based Blue Eagle Credit Union, for example, operates six ITMs, which Director of Operations Kristy Wiseman said can perform nearly all of the transactions that an in-person teller can. “The only two transactions that cannot be completed there would be an official check or redeeming coin, which are done in the branch. But we can cash checks. We can make payments. We do transfers, withdrawals, deposits … pretty much everything you would do at your traditional line,” she said.

The tellers who interact with Blue Eagle’s ITMs are actually sitting in call centers, she added. Blue Eagle has $149 million in assets and about 17,000 members.

Instant-issue kiosks, freestanding or countertop devices that produce debit and credit cards, are also gaining traction. They’re often placed in branch vestibules, and their primary purpose is to help members help themselves if they need a card, according to John Tauer, vice president of sales at the Minneapolis, Minn.-based BLM Technologies, which installs and supports EMV card-issuance hardware.

“Part of the traditional solution was there’s a lot of training involved with their employees, and this pretty much allows the customer to walk up and not have to have any interaction whatsoever,” he said.

You may need to rethink your budget.

Setup costs for instant-issue kiosks average about $12,000, Tauer said, and the hardware costs can range from $18,000 to nearly $30,000 per kiosk, depending on the features. There’s also a monthly hosting fee for the software, which can run about $500 per kiosk.

The return, he said, is largely higher card-activation rates. Members activate only about 40% to 60% of cards sent via the mail, but the activation rate for kiosk-issued cards is more like 100%, he noted.

“If you’re not issuing that many cards per month, it’s an expensive solution and it’s a long ROI cycle. But if you’re issuing a lot of cards every month, that’s where a credit union’s going to see the benefit,” he said.

The other ROI factor around self-service involves branch construction costs. Some of CSF International’s bank clients have purchased ITMs instead of building new branches, Nouri noted.

“I have one just recently that’s in Missouri,” he said. “They’ve got some outlying cities [where they] said they were going to open a branch. Now they’re just putting one of these machines out there. They’re getting new accounts and people are being told, ‘You can go there and there will be a teller you can talk to as though you were coming into one of our branches.’”

Your marketing strategy may have to evolve.

Not every member is going to love having more self-service options, which is why marketing outreach and incentives are important adoption drivers, the experts said.

“One of the challenges for a lot of the credit unions and banks using these machines is adoption,” Nouri explained. “You have to know who your customers are. If you have a younger group of customers who aren’t afraid of new technology, you’ll probably have a better adoption of it.”

It’s much the same story for instant-issue kiosks, according to Tauer. “If a credit union wants that interaction with their customers, this may not be the right device. But when you look at behavior of different generations, it seems like the younger generations are wanting to just do things and not have to talk to a human being. [Credit unions] have to look at the demographics of their customers and say, ‘Hey, do our customers want the convenience? Or do they want to be waited on?’”

Kristy Wiseman has seen it play out first-hand. Members between 18 and 65 use her credit union’s ITMs; the biggest draw has been from members in the 40-to-65 age range, she said.

“Your younger generation will just use that debit card, make that deposit or make that withdrawal, or swipe. They tend to go the route where they don’t really have to have that human interaction,” she said. “It’s just about bringing the awareness to the membership and having them use it. When you’ve got your choice between a live person and a machine, and they’re both available, most people are going to tend to gravitate toward that live body.”

Your technology concerns will evolve.

Among other things, the software that powers ITMs helps the machines switch back and forth between video teller functions and regular ATM functions, Nouri explained. Both of those functions can involve cash dispensations, so credit unions should make sure their ATM vendors can handle the functional switching back and forth, and that the software systems record cash movements properly, according to Nouri. “There is a challenge right now in the industry for some of the switch providers to support both options,” he said.

Biometrics are also part of the mix, especially for instant-issue kiosks. “The facial recognition feature of the kiosk really makes this a much more secure solution than handing the teller your ID and having them verify that,” Tauer said. Built-in fingerprint scanners could arrive soon, too, he added.

Things could change on a dime.

Many credit unions and other financial institutions are hesitant to jump into ITMs right now, Nouri noted. “It’s not like everyone’s rushing out to get these things,” he said. “They’re not cheap, for one, and secondly FIs are still trying to figure out what their return on investment is for these.”

But that hesitancy could change quickly, he warned. “I think there might be a point where the market suddenly says, ‘This is the only way to do it,’” he noted.

“You’ve got to keep in mind that technology and machines like this are ever-evolving,” Wiseman added. “‘Now they have an even bigger and better one that’s out’ – that’s just how technology is.”