Video Banking Provider uGenius Prepares to Launch Online Service
The Utah-based video-banking company uGenius is already known in the financial services industry for its PTMs (Personal Teller Machines) and will soon launch its online video banking solution.
A financial institution based in Australia is currently test-piloting uGenius’s online video banking solution, and more clients are expected to sign on in 2013. The video banking software will be white-labeled and bundled into an FI’s existing website. About 200 uGenius terminals are currently actively in the wild.
Bank Innovation spoke to Gene Pranger, uGenius’s CEO today, and heard about the company’s plans for 2013. “Our roadmap and sales funnel for 2013 looks like a who’s who list of global financial institutions.”
Pranger began working in the financial services industry in 1995 and began work on a video banking product in 2002. He holds two patents for his video banking system.
Though uGenius is actively working on a mobile solution, there is currently no timeframe for the product to launch.
Pranger is aware that there is an acceptance hurdle for video banking to cross before its use becomes widespread: customer comfort with the product. He outlines three principles to help customers acclimate: New technologies should be simple, intuitive, and reliable.
“How do you get customers to engage new products?” he asked, then gave the example of one of uGenius’s first customers, Mid-Hudson Valley bank in Kingston, New York. To encourage customers to interact with their video teller machines, they asked each branch visitor if they would like a dollar. Those who said yes were instructed to deposit the dollar into their account using the uGenius PTMs.
There’s little doubt that video banking will play a role in the bank branch of the future, which will be smaller and feature more self-service options. The question is, will video banking play a big role in online and mobile banking? Along with e-signatures, it could well play a role in facilitating more complex transactions in the online and mobile spaces, given sufficient customer acceptance.
