Banking Insights

While digital payment methods have proliferated in recent years, the amount of cash in circulation continues to increase every year, and it is still a primary method of payment for in-person transactions. Financial institutions face increased pressure to reduce the operational costs associated with ensuring cash availability at their ATMs, branches, and vaults. Implementing a Cash Recycling strategy is an important step in your branch transformation that can streamline branch operations and improve customer service. Cash Recycling saves time and money related to cash replenishment by keeping your machines loaded for your customers while also accurately and reliably validating deposited currency.

While digital banking is on the rise with accessible mobile apps and more feature-rich websites, physical branches are still valuable to the customer. They provide a sense of personal customer service and security. Even customers who mostly use digital channels still want the option to visit a bank branch. However, as physical branches aren’t always as accessible due to location or limited hours of operation, part of a branch transformation strategy is implementing Video-Enabled Teller Machines. Hyosung’s ActiveTeller allows customers to receive the personalized feel of a physical branch with the convenience of an ATM. With these remote technologies, your bank branch will be able to meet the demands of the customer for an alternative to physical banking while still providing personalized service. ActiveTeller provides your members access to contactless transactions and extended banking hours. Hyosung’s core integration allows the ActiveTeller to handle a wide variety of transactions, up to 80%, without the need for a teller, but when a customer wants one, there can be a video call to provide personalized service, even outside of traditional banking hours. With the ActiveTeller able to do so much on its own, one video teller operator can easily handle 3-5 machines on their own from a secure, remote location.

Digital and Fintech acceleration are imperative to branch transformation in order to stay strategically focused on staying technologically modern and operationally agile. Bank branches need to adopt new methods of personalized customer engagement to keep up with the evolving needs of their members. To create a seamless integrated customer experience, your branch transformation has to bring you closer to being an omnichannel solution provider. One part of this process is providing feature-rich self-service ATMs. Hyosung’s machines can function as a self-sufficient branch by offering a more personalized, richer communication channel to improve customer experience. The ActiveTeller allows customers to have a video call with a teller if they need it. Even without human intervention, however, Hyosung’s core integration provides machines with the ability to utilize NFC technology, QR codes, remote payments, digital payments, and peer to peer transactions (p2p).

As banks continue to offer the latest technology to provide their customers with the best options available, more sensitive customer financial data is generated and needs to be securely handled. The security risk of data management is constantly increasing. There is also better paper money security than ever. Branch transformation to increase security needs to include technical measures, such as advanced authentication techniques that prioritize cybersecurity. These authentication methods can include palm/vein readers, fingerprint readers, and any other biometric technology. This should also include protecting data that passes through financial machines, such as ATMs. Hyosung’s MoniGuard has partnered with McAfee to offer robust security features, such as whitelisting executables to ensure malware cannot run on your bank’s machines. Security measures to ensure that you only accept genuine bills should also be taken. Paper money security measures such as the cylinder-mold watermark, security thread, foil, 3D imaging, fluorescent ink, and more have been added to bills. It’s important to be sure that your bill acceptors are part of your bank’s security strategy by ensuring that they never accept counterfeit bills. With all of these checks in place, machines like Hyosung’s Teller Cash Recyclers (TCRs), can make sure that you only accept genuine bills.

New technology is always being invented, and it will continue to disrupt. Those who make the most out of the new technology to deliver the best customer experience will be the winner. Smart bank branches with the right technology boost sales and improve customer experience significantly. Financial institutions should aim to be agile and adaptable to new technologies to meet evolving consumer expectations. Incorporating cloud computing into your branch transformation strategy, such as utilizing software as a service (SaaS) to offer customers services, allows you to grow your business without building a large development team or expanding your IT infrastructure. As technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Blockchain evolve, more and more possibilities will be available. Then there will be entirely new technologies that will continue to move the financial technology industry forward, and adapting these in an effective way will allow your bank to always offer the best to your customers.