Community Calendar

Five County Credit Union First in Maine to Install uGenius Video Banking System and SmartOffice Technology

Five County Credit Union has dramatically changed the way banking is done in New England, with the installation of a uGenius Video Banking System at the credit union’s fourteenth branch in the Cook’s Corner area of Brunswick, Maine.

Five County Vice President Michael Foley said taking a small existing footprint of a building can be challenge to overcome – there’s not always enough room for all the normal elements of a full-size branch office, like a large safe footprint, traditional teller line and multiple offices.

“As soon as we saw the uGenius System in action we knew we would move forward with it; we made the decision in a matter of days,” Foley said.

The uGenius Video Banking System revolutionizes the delivery of traditional teller services and is the future of banking. The credit union member uses a fully-functional remote unit called a uGenius Personal Teller Machine (PTM) that directly connects to human tellers via video conference who can be based in the same branch, or hundreds of miles away in a centralized video call center.  The uGenius system allows the teller and customer to conduct virtually any type of banking transaction, including cash and check deposits, check cashing, transfers, payments – even initiate a loan or service application – remotely. In its simplest form, the system operates like an ATM, but with more banking options and with the assistance of a live human.

“We had been looking for an innovative way to approach branching by better leveraging our staff resources and utilizing a smaller, more efficient, operational footprint while continuing to offer our extended hours of service (8:30am to 8:00pm Monday through Saturday, including holidays),” Foley said. “The Gene Pranger SmartOffice concepts and uGenius Video Banking System provided the solution and mesh perfectly with what we believe will be the future direction and delivery channels of our industry.”

Financial Institutions’ Future Growth and Survival: Maintaining and expanding a profitable branch network is a critical component in any retail banking strategy.  Research shows that 25 percent of all new customer relationships and deposits come from branch locations that are only four years old or newer.  However, construction, real estate, labor, and overhead costs along with declining branch traffic make it very difficult for financial institutions to justify building traditional branches.  By shifting some teller transactions to a centralized location, uGenius Video Banking solutions allow financial institutions like Five County to build smaller branches with staff focused on sales and product delivery vs. transaction processing.  This offers the best of both worlds: more low-cost branch locations delivering higher margin products and services and up to 24/7 access to personalized transaction services.

“With more and more people embracing technology to conduct their financial affairs, our tellers are doing much fewer transactions in our lobbies,” said Five County CU CEO Richard B. Dupuis. “The PTM and Smart Offices are a cost effective way to deliver face to face service without having a significant number of personnel waiting in branches for someone to walk into the lobby.  With this new technology we can have highly skilled staff to handle the volume from one central location.”

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