Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) has now come up with an ATM with video displays that allows customers to chat with a bank employee from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The video ATM will debut at Bank of America’s Back Bay branch at 133 Massachusetts Ave.
“We know that customers want to bank on their schedule — not ours,” Katy Knox, BofA’s retail banking executive, said in a news release.
According to the news release, the ATMs with teller assistance are available in English and Spanish, and have first been introduced in Boston and Atlanta, with other markets to follow. The bank did not provide an exact date as to when such ATMs will be available in other regions. The ATMs have been programmed to tell the exact denominations and coins, which will help the customers to check cash or withdraw precise amounts.
For the future, the bank is planning to add some extra features including splitting deposits into two or more accounts, and making a loan or credit card payments.
Now it looks like the banks are competing on the services offered through ATM’s. Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) has been upgrading its machines to remember customer’s past favorite transactions; JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is planning to roll-out ATMs with advanced payment functions and payout bills in multiple denominations; Citibank, already, has ATMs with video-conferencing facility in three Asian countries.
This is not the first time ATMs had come with a video chat facility. According to a spokesman from NCR Corp., which is a technology provider for banks and retailers, the company has deployed interactive ATMs for banks in about 20 states and is now in talks with Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC).
Even a small community bank in Indiana has more than 50 such ATMs in operations. In Lowell, LowellBank introduced New England’s first interactive ATM in December.
Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), is one of the biggest banks in the country with about 5,500 retail banking offices and more than 16,000 ATMs nationwide. The bank has 256 branches and 1,113 ATMs in Massachusetts.
