ABA Banking Journal - April 2007 - (Page 26)
Community Banking Exhibit 4 Has your bank made any significant change in remote capture pricing in 2007? No, but repricing is under consideration 23.1% No, and none anticipated 69.2% Exhibit 5 Is remote capture profitable on a standalone basis? Pass the Aspirin Of “admins,” aides, secretaries, and bank office life Yes 7.7% Yes, RDC is profitable 23.1% No, RDC is unprofitable 76.9% B the remote capture playing field. ® Community banks’ belief in remote capture as a means of reaching new markets is growing. Branching has been a major outreach effort for community banks in recent years. While the original survey found the jury still out on remote capture as a branch substitute, the follow-up survey strengthened that common attitude a bit. As Exhibit 2, p. 24, shows, more than half surveyed have already successfully reached out of their usual markets for RDC customers. Of those who have, 64.3% have confined this to their own states, but more than one in four have gone both in- and out-of-state, as shown in Exhibit 3, p. 24. ® Pricing trends vary. As Exhibit 4, above, shows, seven in ten banks offering the service haven’t made any change in their RDC pricing since the original survey. However, nearly one in four, in the face of competition and experience, say they are revisiting their pricing, and 7.7% say they have made adjustments. Pricing issues include charges for the service, including whether or not to apply analysis to the service fees; the arrangements concerning the scanners provided through the bank (lease, rent, purchase); and the amounts of monthly charges. ® The profitability outlook is hazy. Interestingly, the role of remote capture may change in a bank’s product lineup as its ubiquity among banks increases. As Exhibit 5, above, shows, only 23.1% of the banks answering the follow-up survey say the service is currently profitable. Interviews indicate that for many banks, this may reflect the perceived need, early on, to plant their flag and counter future competition. However, as Exhibit 6, p. 28, shows, while the majority of banks answering the follow-up survey indicate that remote capture will be a relationship builder, more see remote capture as profitable in the long term. Some of this may reflect the school of thought among some community bankers that remote capture does not belong on the deposit side of the bank at all, but in the domain of the bank’s cash or treasury management product lineup. ® Reported fraud is nearly nonexistent, but continues to lurk out there. The follow-up survey asked, in strictest confidence, if banks offering remote capture in the original survey had seen any fraud issues. None had, and the vendor community has heard little, as shown in Exhibit 7, p. 28. Indeed, the FBI indicated in a response to the ABA BJ query that no reports of fraud directly attributable to remote capture have been seen. An FBI spokesman said agency specialists feel the technology is too new to have been undermined. However, this continues to be a signifi- ankers and their secretaries have long been part of popular culture. Consider the old “Beverly Hillbillies” show. Wherever Jed Clampett’s banker, Mr. Milburn Drysdale, went, his assistant, “Miss Jane” Hathaway wasn’t far behind, often helping the boss out of a jam. And in the recent Harrison Ford film “Firewall,” Ford’s banker character is helped to foil a major plot by the character’s resourceful secretary. Many real bank executives over the years have depended heavily on their real secretaries, perhaps not to foil major plots, but to keep things running smoothly. Today, much has changed in the modern office. One is the job’s title. Many bankers refer to their “admin” (easier than saying “administrative assistant”) instead of “secretary.” April 25 marks Administrative Professionals Day; which got us thinking: With computers, personal digital assistants, e-mail, voice-mail, Blackberries, and more, how do community bank executives, who now, more than ever, include both men and women, use and rely on administrative assistants/secretaries? How has their role evolved? Here’s what we heard from three bankers, with very different views on the matter. If you’d like to share your own thoughts, send them to scocheo@sbpub.com, and we’ll post them on www.passtheaspirinplus.com Remedy 1 Charles M. Petersen, president and CEO, First Community Bank, $83.3 million assets, Woodstock, Vt. Assistant? What assistant? At our community bank the role of the secretary didn’t evolve, it became extinct. I have served as bank president for the past seven-plus years and have operated without an assistant for the past seven years. Quite early in my career (back in the 1980s) I began doing my own word processing. (How many of you remember the old Wang Word Processors?) With the ad- 26 APRIL 2007/ABA BANKING JOURNAL www.ababj.com/subscribe.html
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