Banks promote digital channels as pandemic keeps customers from branches

As social distancing becomes the new normal and quarantine measures spike during the coronavirus pandemic, banks of all sizes are promoting their digital channels to customers. “We are in crisis management mode,” said Mark Cromer, senior vice president and chief operations technology officer at the Sparks, Nev.-based Farm Bureau Bank. “We are trying to minimize the number of people we have working on site [and] are trying to keep people out of branches.” Through email campaigns, social media and website messaging, banks are reminding customers they can continue to take care of their financial business without stepping foot inside a branch. In addition to reaching out directly to consumers Monday, Farm Bureau Bank put a notice on its website encouraging customers to use digital and mobile channels to access account information instead of visiting a branch. The bank operates in 41 states and had $769 million in assets at yearend 2018. The bank is also providing payment relief plans to consumers, similar to how Farm Bureau responds to hurricanes and other natural disasters. Cromer also said senior leadership is “trying to come up with some of these creative ways people can work from home.” Many banks are taking Farm Bureau’s approach and putting coronavirus messages at the top of their websites, including Wells Fargo , Citibank , Fifth Third and U.S. Bank . A Citibank spokesperson said the bank is also using social media and email to push customers toward digital channels. See also: Banks around the country respond to coronavirus Eighty-two percent of consumers are concerned about visiting their local bank and 56% of consumers are concerned about their ability to pay back loans in the coming months, according to a report Lightico provided to Bank Innovation that surveyed 1,000 consumers March 15. Lightico, a fintech that processes e-signatures and other customer-identification verifiers online, works with dozens of U.S. financial institutions. [caption id="attachment_185009" align="alignright" width="300"] Bank of Franklin County's video chat[/caption] It isn’t just large banks with national reach that are pushing customers to bank remotely when possible. Kansas City-based Academy Bank , which has more than $1 billion in assets, also has a message on its website encouraging customers to video chat with bankers via interactive teller machines. The video chat functions are available at Academy’s drive-through locations, which have extended hours of 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. according to Academy Bank CEO Paul Holewinski. The bank is also promoting its ATMs, which can deposit checks so customers can avoid face-to-face interactions at a branch, he noted. Drive-up locations are proving helpful for many smaller banks that still want to reach customers wary of branch visits. Washington, Mo.-based Bank of Franklin County , which has just $273 million in assets, started adding video-chat terminals in the last quarter of 2019. The bank has two drive-up terminals and has added video chat to some of its lobbies. The bank is promoting the video banking terminals to customers through email, social media and messaging on its homepage, said Becky Buhr, vice president of finance and retail manager at Bank of Franklin County. “Our only regret is that we were not able to get more of these deployed sooner, just in case banks in our area are encouraged to close the interior of the branches and operate using drive-ups only,” Buhr said. She added the bank keeps hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes near the machines. Despite the drive to digital channels, it remains to be seen how much the pandemic will affect new business. “Yesterday was business as usual, but today was a total fall-off,” Farm Bureau Bank’s Cromer said. “We are seeing a definitive drop-off in new business.” The Banking Automation Summit, which takes place from June 1-2 in Miami, is a unique opportunity to share insights, trends, strategies and best practices on back-office automation in financial services with the industry’s leading practitioners. Register here .

Banks promote digital channels as pandemic keeps customers from branches

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