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Downtown Bay Shore is about to play host to something that’s still very new in the banking world, especially here on Long Island: interactive teller machines, or ITMs.
What that means is this, when the 13th NEFCU branch opens at the corner of Maple and Main streets this summer, there will be two machines at which clients will be able to select a teller option.
“You can decide if you want to speak to a teller, and it’s going to be a video teller,” said Valerie Garguilo, a VP of marketing and community relations at Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union. “The actual tellers will be in Westbury.”
At night, those two ITMs will serve as traditional ATMs.
Garguilo said she has seen some ITMs at banks in New York City.
“But I know no other credit unions here are doing it,” she said. “And we’re really one of the first on Long Island” among banks or credit unions.
There will also be a third, traditional ATM machine in the NEFCU lobby in Bay Shore.
But there will never be live tellers in the branch, and at nighttime all the machines will serve as traditional ATMs.
“This creates huge efficiencies for us,” Garguilo said of the ITMs. “The tellers [in Westbury] can now service multiple branches. If one branch is slow and the other is busy, they can switch from branch to branch.”
There are some safety benefits as well, she said. For instance, you can’t hold up a machine.
“But there will be some humans in the branch,” Garguilo stressed. “We’ll have member service reps if you want to sit down, ask a question or have a conversation. There will be a bank manager.”
The branch is being built out now in Bay Shore, and is expected to open Tuesday, Sept. 6.
This is NEFCU’s third Suffolk County branch, with the others on Jericho Turnpike in Commack and Huntington Station.
The high-tech Bay Shore location will also be outfitted with a touch-screen digital solutions center displaying rates and downloadable brochures, as well as a community message board.
Future NEFCO branches will all be modeled after the one in Bay Shore.
“This is the future of banking; the days of these huge branches are gone.” Garguilo said. “Technology is really enabling us to do a lot of the banking transactions in a much smaller footprint, and get all these great efficiencies, and safety benefits on top of that.”
