Mumbai : As part of the “ATMIA India ATMs 2013” event, NCR Corporation   today launched NCR APTRA™ Interactive Teller, a new ATM-based technology that makes everyday banking transactions easier for customers by allowing them to complete more than 90 percent of typical branch transactions at the ATM assisted by a live remote teller, well beyond operating branch hours.

An internal study done by NCR shows that the implementation of NCR’s interactive video technology can result in a 33 percent reduction in transaction time and 40 percent savings for the cost-per-transaction, as compared with a branch teller transaction.

NCR APTRA Interactive Teller will help banks in India to take a new approach to grow their geographic footprint and focus on transforming their branch location into a more effective service and sales environment. It will allow banks to offer after-hours full teller services in areas that are not served by branches, while taking advantage of the advanced features of NCR ATMs such as intelligent deposit, bill pay, new account opening and loan initiations.

Beyond talking to a teller, Interactive Teller offers more services than can be conducted on an ATM or other self-service devices. For instance, customers can perform secure transactions without using a traditional ATM card and, like branch tellers, remote tellers can provide customers access to cash in their accounts in amounts over the standard ATM daily cash withdrawal limits.

“At NCR we understand that rethinking a bank’s retail network strategy may seem like a massive step, which is why our solutions let banks adopt an incremental approach that increases branch efficiency, improves the customer experience and maximizes the profitability of the branch network,” said Jaivinder Gill, regional vice president sales, financial business, for NCR Corporation South Asia Pacific region. “With 80 percent of product sales still being closed at the branch, it is more important than ever that financial institutions offer an excellent customer experience. NCR is all set to help financial institutions in India transform their retail network to achieve transaction automation, customer satisfaction, sales enablement and above all, customer retention.”

“Bank branches remain an important selling tool and revenue driver for financial institutions, but they are costly and make it difficult for banks to expand their footprint. NCR APTRA Interactive Teller is a solution to the challenges around expansion and provision of banking services to the unbanked populations in rural areas, helping banks to augment their branch footprint, deliver teller services to underserved areas and provide their branch promises,” said Navroze Dastur, managing director sales, Financial Services, NCR Corporation India.

NCR showcased a host of innovative banking technologies at the “ATMIA India ATMs 2013” road show including NCR SelfServ 32 – a unique bunch notes and cheque deposit technology that can accept, count and process multi-denomination cash and cheque deposits simultaneously in one transaction slashing deposit times for consumers; a typical mixed deposit takes less than 60 seconds. In a typical branch, cash and cheque deposits and cash withdrawals make up more than 60 percent of transactions performed at the teller counter. By automating and rapidly speeding up these transactions, queues are reduced and branch staff can spend more face-to-face time with those customers who really need it.

Supporting RBI’s objective of providing financial accessibility to every citizen in India irrespective of his or her disability, NCR also showcased it Voice-Guided ATMs — which not only allows access to visually impaired people but also people with physical disabilities through ramps for wheel chair access. NCR’s ‘Talking ATMs’ are incorporated with unique software and hardware features which ensures that a person  with a disability can operate the machine on his own, while maintaining the safety of the transaction. These ATM machines are designed as per Access for All (AFA) standards and comprises of accessible key pads, voice-guidance technology, Braille stickers and multi-lingual capability. Apart from reading aloud screen messages, the machine also provides complete orientation making it easy for the customer to use the machine. An important security feature of this ATM is that it provides the person an option to blank out the screen as a safety mechanism to avoid shoulder surfing by any by-stander trying to access customer data during the transaction.

Source : Lokesh Shastri