technology Update
Not your parents’ ATM FirstOntario Credit Union uses technology to reinvent the branch By Amy Bostock
22
PAYMENTSBUSINESS
I
n his best-selling books Banking 2.0 and Banking 3.0, Brett King heralds the death of the bank branch – warning financial institutions that they have to reinvent themselves because branches are going to disappear. “We never did believe that here,” says David Schurman, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at FirstOntario Credit Union. “We do believe
that branches are going to be different and that banking is going to be different. The branch will continue to be a channel that people will want to use. Maybe not as much as in the past and not as often but they will occasionally need a branch.” Schurman says what financial institutions really need to do is reinvent what a traditional branch is. “We no longer need a 6,000 square foot space,” he says. January/February 2014
“People are visiting less often and the technology available means smaller footprints are possible. We feel that we need to have more branch footprints but different, smaller branches in more convenient locations.”
Bank where you want to bank Having branches along what Schurman calls “the pathway of life”, that is where people are