PORTLAND, Ore. - U.S. Bancorp has added a new technology to its aggressive electronic service strategy: an interactive video system from Intel Corp. that lets customers converse with bankers "face to face."
According to an Intel spokesman, U.S. Bancorp is the first bank to use the ProShare technology in consumer banking.
The bank began testing a single system from the Santa Clara, Calif., firm Aug. 2 at a booth in the lobby of its headquarters building.
Michael F. Cebula, the assistant vice president in charge of the project, said the bank expects to use ProShare in many more places - primarily office buildings, shopping malls, and grocery stores. The $22 billion-asset banking company, which has also been active in home banking programs, expects to make the ProShare technology a centerpiece of its electronic delivery strategy.
"It's another way for the convenience craver to access our bank," Mr. Cebula said.
ProShare consists of software and hardware that allow personal computer users to see and talk with each other and transmit data back and forth over digital telephone lines.
U.S. Bancorp has modified the system to handle basic consumer banking transactions such as opening checking, savings, and money market accounts, buying of certificates of deposit, and obtaining credit and debit cards.
The current unit looks much like an automated teller machine with a touch-sensitive screen. Only instead of cash, the machine displays video images of both the person sitting in front of it and a customer representative in U.S. Bancorp's telephone calling center.
Whereas older automated kiosks operated by nearly two dozen other banks around the country display stationary or partial motion images of the banker handling the transaction, the Intel system offers a "full motion" video.
Mr. Cebula said U.S. Bancorp found the Intel technology to be substantially less expensive than alternatives available from AT&T Global Information Solutions and Aegis Technologies of Charlotte, N.C. A ProShare system costs $999.
Mr. Cebula said the AT&T video banking technology, which is being used by Huntington Bancshares of Columbus, Ohio, is more than twice as expensive. The Aegis technology, which is being used by more than 20 banks including PNC Bank Corp and Seafirst Corp., costs even more, he said.
Including construction costs and a personal computer, it could take less than $10,000 to outfit a location with the Intel system, he said.
