• Home
  • Education
  • News and Resources
  • Advocacy
  • Associate Members
  • Contact
  • Click to open the search input field Click to open the search input field Search
  • Menu Menu
News
Community, News, Resources

ITMs Are Catching On With Bankers, Customers

Interactive teller machines (ITMs): the convenience of an ATM plus personal service

By Paul Gores

While some financial institutions still are considering whether to install interactive teller machines, Wisconsin banks that already have invested in ITMs say they’re becoming an increasingly important part of their business strategy.

ITMs — essentially enhanced-function ATMs that let a customer speak with a teller via a video screen — allow in-branch employees to focus on higher-level interactions with customers while the technology handles routine transactions, bankers say.

Wisconsin bankers using ITMs say their customers, in an increasingly video-driven world, want them and quickly become accustomed to them. And they note that when the coronavirus pandemic shut down branches in 2020, they were a godsend.

“It can do deposits, withdrawals. It has the convenience of having more than just $20s,” said Lisa Schwalen, retail market manager for Bank of Luxemburg. “It can change the PIN on your debit card. Loan payments. Really, anything you can pretty much do over the teller line, you can do at the ITM.”

Banking equipment vendor NCR Corporation calls the ITM a “branch in a box.” Among its functions, according to NCR, an ITM can be used to: get cash, deposit checks, cash checks to the penny, handle bill and loan payments, transfer funds to any account, order replacement cards, process savings bonds and redemptions, process CD renewals and inquiries, and issue money orders.

Bank of Luxemburg placed its first ITM in a local grocery store in January of 2021.

“Ultimately it’s the flexibility that we are hoping to bring to our customers to allow them to do some banking not only outside the traditional banking business hours per se, but also to give them the convenience — going to the grocery store and having it there,” Schwalen said.

Bank of Luxemburg now has two other ITMs, including in a branch drive-through lane, which is how many banks are using them. The ITM essentially replaces the old tube system for exchanging checks and cash between a driver and a teller inside the branch.

At Madison’s Park Bank, ITMs are in the drive-through lanes.

“We’ve ripped out the tubes and put them in our drive-ups,” said Jeff Kurek, vice president of information and cyber security for Park Bank.

Park Bank had ITMs in place before the word “COVID” became part of everyday life.

“They were great during the pandemic,” Kurek said. “During the pandemic, the lobbies were all shut down. We were told to shut down. And we had employees who still had jobs to do. So the customers went up to the ITM. They could open up a bank account if they’d so choose. They were a lifesaver during the pandemic. We had full-service branches because of them.”

Kurek said Park Bank invested in ITMs, in part, because customers indicated they wanted them.

“The customer is always asking for the latest and greatest technology,” Kurek said.

The Stephenson National Bank & Trust in Marinette also was ahead of the COVID curve, installing ITMs starting in 2017. Elisa Rollo, senior vice president and chief retail officer, said the bank was looking to modernize its technology offerings for customers, and, among other factors, consider future staffing needs.

The Stephenson National Bank & Trust has 16 ITMs.

“We have three dedicated people to those 16 machines,” Rollo said. “If and when we decide to put more machines in, we would probably not add staff right away. I’m assuming they can do up to eight [ITMs each], and they’ve got it timed so well to where they know their customers’ traffic flow and the items that they’re handling.”

According to a survey last year by the branding firm Adrenaline, even though ITMs entered the market in the 2010s, most ITMs have been put into operation in just the last five years. Juliet D’Ambrosio, Adrenaline’s managing director of strategy, said in a report that ITMs were a self-service technology that “serves as a bridge between the physical and digital, improving customer experience and increasing revenue per customer.”

“It can serve dual purposes — automating routine banking activity while providing access to bankers for higher-value consultations,” she said.

John Kaprelian, vice president and retail manager for Marshfield-based Forward Bank, shares that view.

“I think what we’re going to see is a continued shift toward branch staff being used primarily for the value-add activities that require humans — that people are better at than machines. Giving advice, opening accounts, answering questions, lending — those sorts of things,” said Kaprelian, whose institution began using ITMs a year ago. “And the teller work is really going to become a secondary responsibility of that staff and will be an increasingly small part of their day-to-day activities.”

Some banks have reported that once customers become comfortable with ITMs, they often don’t need to contact the teller who is staffing the ITM to conduct a transaction.

Customer adoption and price are two of the main concerns of banks considering an investment in ITMs.

To encourage adoption, Bank of Luxemburg temporarily posted a banker near its grocery store ITM to show customers how to use it. The bank also filmed a YouTube video explaining the ITM.

Rollo said those monitoring usage at The Stephenson National Bank & Trust’s ITMs were a little surprised at how quickly older customers took to the new technology.

“We thought the older people aren’t going to adopt as quickly. Well, those now are some of our biggest advocates for the technology,” Rollo said. “They love to walk up and press a button, or never get out of their car, and they don’t have to see a person face to face. They can hear better with them, see a person better than you can in a drive-through through window.”

Kurek said customers needed some assistance at first.

“They needed some help, like with all change,” Kurek said. “We helped and we assisted, and I would say the pandemic escalated that. It changed the way people were doing things.”

Said Karen Berg, customer support manager for Forward Bank: “Actually, our customers have been really accepting of the ITMs and they have caught on pretty fast.”

An Adrenaline report from 2021 found that large majorities in all generations thought they would be extremely or very comfortable using an ITM: Millennials, 86%; Gen X, 85%; Gen Z, 80%; and those 55 and older, 72%.

The issue of price may be what’s holding some banks back on an ITM investment, although Adrenaline found that 60% of banks plan to deploy them by 2024.

A report last year by the financial institutions consulting firm Bancography explained the potential cost of that first ITM.

The report said if a bank already operates ITMs, the marginal cost of adding another probably would be less than $100,000.

“However, a critical challenge of implementing ITMs lies in the initial setup cost,” the Bancography report stated. “The back office infrastructure required to establish an initial ITM (building connectivity to the call center, systems integration, etc.) can cost $300,000– $500,000. So, assuming the midpoint and $85,000 for the machine itself, the first ITM costs $485,000.”

But if the initial rollout is bigger, the fixed infrastructure cost is amortized to a more reasonable level, Bancography said.

“The first one you put in definitely is costly just because you’re not only buying the machine, but the bank also has to build the parameters and the data input and the software to run the machine,” said Bank of Luxemburg’s Schwalen. “That usually is about three times the cost of the actual ITM. Once you get the first one down, the second ones obviously are a lot more reasonable. The average ITM, depending on the company — there’s different vendors out there — I would say they are in the neighborhood of $60,000 to $80,000.”

Rollo said when The Stephenson National Bank & Trust was making the decision about ITMs, its ATMs were getting to the point where they needed to be replaced anyway.

“The opportunity to do it — and do it the right way — was there,” she said. “They do cost — probably I want to say — double what our normal ATM would cost. That includes the infrastructure to make the system work.”

Bankers using ITMs in Wisconsin said the machines provide additional opportunities for local bank employees who want to be involved with the new technology.

“When we started converting the drive-ups, we never eliminated any positions. We didn’t know how many people we were going to have to have behind the scenes and running these drive-ups,” Rollo said. “We started out slower and had four of the drive-up people converted — we call them interactive service agents. They were universal bankers and tellers that transitioned into this role. We didn’t hire anybody specifically for the role.”

The bank still has two of those four original interactive service agents — “They’re really good at what they do,” Rollo said — and the bank also has cross-trained some other universal bankers and contact center employees as back-up.

Even as ITMs catch on, bank leaders don’t foresee a day when traditional face-to- face tellers and front-line bankers will disappear.

“Technology is not perfect. Technology will not replace our people,” said Park Bank’s Kurek. “It’s only going to enhance our customer experience. The technology is a response to needs, to us listening to what they’re asking for.”

Forward Bank’s Kaprelian said he doesn’t think tellers are going away.

“There are certain activities that ITMs just aren’t very good at handling, and you’re going to require staff — humans — to actually do it,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to change for quite a while, if ever.”

Gores is a journalist who covered business news for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for 20 years.

Print 🖨
September 6, 2022/by Hannah Flanders
Tags: ITMs, Retail Banking
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on X
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Share on Vk
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://www.wisbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Triangle-Backgrounds_Yellow-on-Light-Blue.jpg 972 1921 Hannah Flanders https://www.wisbank.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Wisconsin-Bankers-Association-logo.svg Hannah Flanders2022-09-06 08:00:472022-09-06 08:00:47ITMs Are Catching On With Bankers, Customers
You might also like
You’re Stronger Than You Might Realize
Graduating students throwing graduation caps into air in celebration Congratulations to the June 2023 BankWork$ Graduates!
Graduating students throwing graduation caps into air in celebration Congratulations to the November BankWork$ Graduates!
WBF Scholarship Set Careers in Motion
Graduating students throwing graduation caps into air in celebration Congratulations to the December BankWork$ Graduates!
Graduating students throwing graduation caps into air in celebration Congratulations to the August 2023 BankWork$ Graduates!
Graduating students throwing graduation caps into air in celebration Congratulations to the March BankWork$ Graduates!
Introducing FLEX: Retail and Marketing Summit
Search Search

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Community
  • Compliance
  • Credit Unions
  • Education
  • Member News
  • News
  • Products
  • Resources
  • Uncategorized

Recent Posts

  • Prevail Bank Welcomes Ruthie Dickinson as New Mortgage Loan Originator
  • National Exchange Bank & Trust Joins Take Root Milwaukee
  • Executive Letter: Record-Breaking Capitol Day Demonstrates Power of Unified Industry Voice
  • Association Update: New Fraud Summit in June to Address Evolving Threats
  • Horicon Bank Receives the WASDA Bert Grover Child Advocacy Award – Business for 2025

Archives

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • August 2016
Wisconsin Bankers Association logo
  • About
  • Community
  • Subsidiaries
  • Staff

questions@wisbank.com

608-441-1200

4721 S Biltmore Ln.
Madison, WI 53718

Get our Newsletter!
Subscribe

© 2025 Wisconsin Bankers Association. All rights reserved. | Website Design by Bizzy Bizzy
Link to: Congratulations to the August BankWork$ Graduates! Link to: Congratulations to the August BankWork$ Graduates! Congratulations to the August BankWork$ Graduates!Graduating students throwing graduation caps into air in celebration Link to: Association Update: EBC Assists WBA — Members Meet Goals, Live Healthier Link to: Association Update: EBC Assists WBA — Members Meet Goals, Live Healthier Association Update: EBC Assists WBA — Members Meet Goals, Live Healthier
Scroll to top Scroll to top Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more×

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Terms of Use
Accept settingsHide notification only

Subscribe

* indicates required








Membership