Bank of the West Adds ATMs for Young Customers on the Move

Bank of the West recently added 143 ATMs across the Denver and Sacramento metro areas through an agreement with ATM operator Cardtronics . One target? Millennials, actually. The San Francisco-based bank said it has tripled the number of cash access locations for its customers in Denver, to 151, and nearly quadrupled the number of those locations in Sacramento, to 50. The ATMs were installed in Walgreens locations through the end of September. Ryan Bailey, executive vice president and head of retail banking at Bank of the West, told FinAi News they’re seeing strong migration numbers into those cities by younger customers. “Denver is exploding, especially with a millennial population that’s moving in,” he said. “As far as Sacramento, as the Bay Area is becoming less affordable for younger populations, Sacramento is where a lot of these people are moving to.” A Federal Reserve study released in November 2016 found that although the share of people preferring cash declined across all age groups between 2012 and 2015, those in the age 18-to-24 category included the largest share of people who prefer cash, at 38%. Only about a quarter of each of the other age groups chose cash as their go-to payment method. Bailey said Bank of the West's decision to add ATMs is all about convenience and providing better coverage to existing, growing markets. But how long will demand for ATMs hold up in the age of mobile payments and money transfers? “When ATMs were launched, people said branches were dead and that never happened, and then people said, when some of these money movement services launched, that ATMs are going to go out of style,” Bailey said, adding the one thing he can’t give customers through the bank’s online and mobile platforms is actual cash. He said customers still want cash and that he believes ATMs are going to remain a “fairly robust” part of society for the foreseeable future. That’s not to say the digital front is being neglected. Bank of the West, a subsidiary of France-based BNP Paribas , joined the Zelle Network earlier this year in order to offer customers access to the mobile peer-to-peer payments service through the bank’s digital banking app. Bailey said although Bank of the West has closed roughly 20% of its branches over the last 5 years or so, the bank plans on keeping its branch size close to where it is today. “Our branches are still very busy,” he said, while acknowledging some transaction migration to other channels. Bailey said digital banking at Bank of the West is accelerating at a faster pace, which he attributes to customer demand and better technology, but that going digital has not been a “forced migration” for the bank. He said the company still believes customers should be able to bank when, where and how they want, whether that’s online, through an app, over the phone, or in the branches. “Bank of the West is really focused on solving true customer issues, so it’s not about putting flashy objects out there as much as it is about solving pain points for the customers,” Bailey said. “All my innovation starts with customer issues and how to make their lives better.”

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Bank of the West Adds ATMs for Young Customers on the Move

Why Are Bank-Fintech Partnerships So Rare?

Mobile Banking App Population Sees Biggest Growth in 3 Years

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