Branch banking

On the first day RoboCoin's Bitcoin ATM was deployed, one third of its users were new to the digital currency.

The payments industry is facing pressure from outside companies that are toppling many preconceptions about how payments should work. But industry veterans are fighting back, and they shared their strategies at SourceMedia's 2013 ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum.

Diebold Inc., a maker of ATMs and bank security systems, agreed to pay more than $48 million to settle allegations by the U.S. that it bribed officials in Russia, China and Indonesia.

As Fexco and First Data demonstrated their futuristic ATM concept, they emphasized that the bank is at the heart of the offering. And as Lamassu demonstrated a similar device for bitcoin users, a very different message came across.

Payment Alliance International and Iberiabank Corp. have agreed to brand ATMs in Rite Aid pharmacies in Greater Memphis.

LANSING, Mich. – The Brighton Township Planning Commission on Monday night signed off on a site plan for Lake Trust CU’s new 100,000-square-foot office project, which would be one of the biggest credit union builds in the country.

Despite Bitcoin's pop culture appeal, most people perceive the virtual currency as so complicated that it must take a rocket scientist to understand. But Moneero has invented a machine that aims to change that perception.

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine – Town and Country FCU is proposing to build a 40,399-square-foot office project in nearby Scarborough that would serve as office space for the credit union’s lending, accounting, collecting and marketing offices.

WEST JORDAN, Utah – Mountain America CU this week opened a new branch in Pocatello, its fifth in Idaho and 77th in its five Western states field of membership.

MECHANICSBURG, Penn. – Members 1st FCU is opening three more branches in Lancaster County, in Elizabethtown this month, Ephrata next month and Millersville in April.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. – Fast-growing United FCU, one of a handful of credit unions to buy a bank in the past year, has renovated its 6,000-square-foot mortgage processing facility into a training center for staff.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Park Community FCU plans to break ground next week on its new headquarters, a two-story, 43,000-square-foot building.

FORT HOOD, Texas – Navy FCU opened a new branch, its sixth of the year, last week in Copperas Cove, near the Fort Hood Army Base, and plans to open more than six additional branches by year-end.

The Lamassu Bitcoin machine, a so-called Bitcoin ATM that allows consumers to deposit cash to buy bitcoins, has its first buyer.

EL PASO, Texas – GECU introduced a new branching concept this week combining a credit union branch with a local tea and coffee café.

Cardtronics' subsidiary Cardtronics USA has purchased the ATM assets from CGI, adding 1,000 merchant-owned ATMs to Cardtronics' U.S. fleet.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Teachers FCU opened its 25th branch – and first in Nassau County – in Merrick, signaling a new marketing push for New York’s second-largest credit union.

FAIRBORN, Ohio – Wright-Patt CU has acquired the 137,000-square-foot former Computer Sciences Corp. building in nearby Beavercreek for $22.75 million and plans to relocate its headquarters there.

Alcoa Tenn FCU makes no bones about why its Fairview branch is successful-business is booming thanks to the big retail store right across the street.

About six miles from Peterson Air Force base and nine from the Fort Carson Army Post, the Jet Wing Service Center of Ent FCU has a rock-solid segment of its membership that it not only counts on for loans and deposits, but even some free marketing, as well.