COLUMBUS, Ohio – Education First CU has introduced what it calls the smallest manned-branch in the industry, a 228 square-foot facility inside Clark Hall – a new state of the art multiple-classroom facility which is part of the Gahanna Jefferson School District.
The tiny SmartBRANCH, which features a uGenius Video Banking System, measures 12 feet x 19 feet, and is believed to be the smallest full service financial institution in the U.S. It’s also the first time teller services have been implemented in Ohio with the uGenius Technology video banking system.
The Education First SmartBRANCH also utilizes uGenius’ SmartOFFICE technology where a member services representative onsite can assist members to virtually connect with a product specialist to initiate a loan, open an account electronically or help individual members with other services.
“Credit unions and traditional banks must greatly adjust the ways they do business if they are going to be successful in the retail environment of today and the future,” said Dick Maslyk, president of the $85 million credit union. “Members frequently tell us they want to bank on their time, want branches closer to their homes or places of work without losing the personal touch and working relationship they have come to enjoy with the credit union staff. The SmartBRANCH with uGenius Technology’s Personal Teller answers all of banking’s current and future retail market challenges.”
The uGenius Video Banking System allows financial institutions like Education First to deploy small branches to assist members with a full spectrum of traditional banking needs. For teller services the credit union member or bank customer uses a fully-functional remote unit called the uGenius Personal Teller Machine.
This technology directly connects members from a variety of branches to traditional tellers via video conferencing, who are based in a credit union/bank centralized service center. The uGenius system allows the teller and member/customer to conduct virtually any type of traditional banking transaction, including deposits with cash, coin and check, plus withdrawals, check cashing, transfers and loan payments for example.
“Building new branches to serve changing customer needs utilizing traditional brick and mortar is, frankly, going out of style,” Maslyk said. “Using the technology of today we can place multiple branches in a variety of locations – as has been happening in grocery stores and large corporation lobbies for example. What’s new today is that the uGenius video banking system allows us to create a live branch environment in the smallest branch footprint possible – about half the size of most grocery store locations to date – and still fully serve the needs of our growing member base. The SmartBRANCH concept truly is the wave of the future for banking.”
