To cut customer waiting time ... NCB to add 55 iABMs, banking kiosks this year
Published:Sunday | January 19, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Reporter
National Commercial Bank (NCB) said that during the current year it will add another 55 multifunction intelligent automated banking machines and 31 banking kiosks under the company's 'Bank on the Go' initiative which has so far seen the machines installed in five branches.
"Most of our customers stand in line to access banking services. Our intention is to change that," said Group Managing Director Patrick Hylton at the official launch of 'Bank on the Go' in New Kingston last Thursday.
NCB noted that in addition to regular transactions, customers will also have the ability to lodge and change cheques using the intelligent ABMs, a functionality that will come on stream this year.
NCB did not disclose the actual expenditure on the upgrade.
The intelligent machines are a change over from ABMs that dispense cash only. The new machines do not require envelopes. Instead they scan the denominations on cash notes as they are being deposited, with up to 30 notes permitted for each transaction. No coins are allowed.
The machines are installed in facilities which are open 24 hours daily and are expected to cut transaction traffic in-branch by 33 per cent.
The iABMs were first installed at NCB branches on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies; Duke Street, downtown Kingston; Oxford Place and Knutsford branches in New Kingston and Portmore, St Catherine in the fourth quarter of last year.
Multifunction iABMs Use
Multifunction iABMs are used for cash deposits, bill payments, balance inquiries, to transfers funds to own accounts, cash advance, and mobile phone top-up. Kiosks permit transfer to any NCB account, international wire transfers, cheque book ordering, embassy letter requests, account update, bill payment, mobile top-up, balance enquiry and updating of account records. Express cheque deposit boxes are used for cheque lodgement.
Audrey Tugwell-Henry, senior general manager of retail banking at NCB said that with the new 'Bank on the Go' facilities, the company has been able to improve the speed and efficiency of processing day-to-day transactions and also reduce the handling of cash and cheque deposits, credit card and bill payments as well as cash withdrawals and transfers at teller lines.
The company, she said, has seen "a steady increase in the number of transactions conducted via the alternate channels. For example, one assessment indicates an average of 3,500 cash withdrawals, 1,000 cash deposits and 860 credit card payments initiated weekly through the self-service areas."
Hylton said that NCB, a 176-year-old company, is seeking to continue innovations which began when the company introduced the first ABMs in Jamaica, the only proprietary credit card in the English-speaking Caribbean, the first point of sale debit facilities, among other firsts.
Noting that transactional migration - involving customer use of electronic/automated services - has been slow to catch on locally, he said provision of such services in comfortable and safe surroundings will encourage them to do it elsewhere, including at home.