Community Banks Make Move Toward Internet Banking and Imaging
by Michele Petry, BOL Guru BIO AND CONTACT INFO
Community Banks have long been the financial backbone of rural and mid-America, serving the financial needs of communities bound more by handshakes and less by technology. Within their communities, bankers watched quietly from their perches atop Rotary Club meetings and other civic vantage points looking for signs that the plain town folk were wanting, if not demanding, new technological services.
As large banks rushed to the Internet amid the '90's frenzied technology boom, many community bankers sat back and wondered what all the fuss was about. Now, if community bank technology spending intent is any indication, it looks like these banks are finally beginning to hear the technology cry loud and clear emanating from within their communities.
According to the results of the 2001 Community Bank Technology Survey released by the Independent Community Bankers of America and InFinet Resources, bankers appear to have Internet Banking and Imaging clearly on their mind. Among the community bankers surveyed, Internet Banking and Imaging were selected as the top two technology decisions community bankers would be facing in the year ahead.
At the end of 2001, 68% of community banks surveyed currently had a web site, yet only 46% of the banks offered Internet banking services to their customers, with an additional 20% of the banks reporting that they were planning to evaluate Internet Banking options within the next year.
One of the most surprising results from the survey was that the two technologies that garnered the greatest interest from this group of bankers in terms of evaluating for future delivery were E-mail statement delivery (54% said they planned to evaluate this technology) and Document Imaging (53% planned to evaluate).
With the U.S Postal Service's most recent announcement of a 3 cent rate hike in the price of a postal stamp (first-class stamp will rise 3 cents to 37 cents effective summer 2002), the numbers of bankers looking to imaging and electronic delivery of statements may very likely increase.
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