Money Talks
For a preview of what may be the next generation of bank branches in California, look under the first-floor escalator at the Galleria at South Bay mall in Redondo Beach.
There, enclosed in a small glass booth, is Union Bank of California’s answer to high-tech convenience with a personal touch. There’s an automated teller machine, a telephone and a personal computer--standard fare in today’s banking environment. But the touch-screen monitor has this extra feature: If you have a question, you can connect live by video to customer service reps miles away.
“Nothing like it exists on the West Coast,” boasts Robert Weber, Union Bank’s manager of product development. Weber calls it Union’s interactive-video-banking kiosk, and he predicts the state’s third-largest bank will put many more of them in places like malls and airports.
Those plans depend on how well the kiosk in the Galleria does.
The 50-square-foot unit, while much cheaper than opening a traditional bank branch, still cost San Francisco-based Union about $100,000. The kiosk employs the latest video technology developed by Sony Technology Center in San Diego, and it is supported by two customer service reps in Irvine who stand ready to be linked instantly by video to bank customers.
Weber would only say that the kiosk has met expectations since opening in May. But judging by how well interactive video banking has performed on the East Coast and California’s penchant for high-tech banking, the technology figures to have a future here.
Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh has been the most aggressive user of live video banking. Since early 1996, Mellon has put its Video Banker centers in 250 locations in four Eastern states. Spokesman Steve Dishart says Mellon expects to sell 50,000 banking products through its Bell Atlantic video system this year.
“We were concerned going in about how customers would react to doing business this way,” Dishart said. “What we found is that they’ve warmed to it quite well.”
That sums up the experience of Anita Wright, a 38-year-old Hawthorne resident who recently stepped into Union Bank’s kiosk at the Galleria to open a checking account.
Wright says she had typed in some personal information and put a copy of her driver’s license into a slot in the kiosk when a question occurred to her. So she touched the computer screen a couple of times and was instantly connected, via two-way video, to a Union representative.
“I was really surprised to see a live person. It was real neat,” said Wright, adding that the whole process took just 10 minutes. And if she has another question? “Sure,” she said. “I would go back and talk to him. He was real nice.”
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Staff writer Don Lee can be reached by e-mail at don.lee@latimes.com or by fax at (213) 237-7837.
