Christopher Emmons, president and CEO of Gorham Savings Bank, is banking on new technologies like interactive teller machines and native ads popping up on cell phones to rein in and keep customers.
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Christopher Emmons, president and CEO of Gorham Savings Bank, is banking on new technologies like interactive teller machines and native ads popping up on cell phones to rein in and keep customers.
A walk into the Gorham Savings Bank lobby and headquarters in Gorham looks like any other bank with marble columns and shiny black counters, except for one corner, where customers can learn how to set up their portable phones and computing devices to do online banking and meet the bank's newest gadget, the interactive teller machine, which essentially is an ATM with the ability to call a remote human teller and see and talk to him or her on the screen.
“The technology isn't new, but we're the first bank in the state to introduce it,” says President and CEO Christopher Emmons. “It's a teller experience through a video port.”
Emmons figures this is one way to save money: a typical human bank teller transaction costs $3 to $4, he says, while an online transaction costs 30 to 50 cents. That, he says, takes the human cost and infrastructure out of branches, enabling the primarily southern Maine bank to expand to areas of Maine where it would be too costly to build infrastructure and situate human tellers. The mutual bank currently has 180 employees at 11 branches across Cumberland and York counties. It plans to add another 25 to 30 in the next five years.
“The goal isn't to reduce staff,” he emphasizes. “It's an opportunity to expand hours and provide convenience.” The bank currently has three ITMs, one in Gorham, one in Kennebunk and one on Munjoy Hill, but others are planned.
Emmons said Forrester Research predicts that financial institutions worldwide will start to experiment in the next few years with ways to enhance and redefine branches.
He is embracing technology for the bank, including native ads popping up on iPhones to pull in travelers driving by, ApplePay, mobile check deposit and other technologies that are a top priority for the bank.
The bank also plans to up its stake for Maine start-up companies in its upcoming fourth annual $30K LaunchPad Competition, which this year will be upped to $50,000 for the winner chosen in the final judging on June 7.
Mainebiz recently chatted with Emmons at the Gorham headquarters. An edited transcript follows.
Mainebiz: For a 150-year-old bank you seem fixated on new technology. Tell us about the evolution of the ITMs.
Christopher Emmons: We started looking at it about a year-and-a-half ago. We are in a technology-driven industry. You'll likely see more of this as time moves on at banks in Maine and elsewhere with electronic branches. It's like a self-checkout at a Hannaford. Our IT guy saw an ITM somewhere. He saw it as a means to look down the road at the future of banking. Someone told me that millennials would rather go to the dentist than a bank. Fewer than 15% of them do transactions in branches. Some 85% are mobile or online. We're looking at how that's changing and looking at how to staff differently and train differently. We're also looking at what the next technology is in five years to trump ATMs. We're trying to offset banking as one of the chores you do on Saturday.
MB: You're approaching the $1 billion milestone in assets. What does that mean for the bank?
CE: Most of our business, about half a billion dollars, is in commercial loans. We have over $50 million in residential mortgages, about half of which we will keep. Reaching $1 billion, which we may do by the end of this fiscal year on March 31, means more monitoring and auditing.
We've developed a process to turn the $1 billion corner.
MB: What's the status of your new India Street location in Portland?
CE: There's some work being done inside and we're working on other city approvals because it's an historic property. There also are three to four other sites near the building being done at the same time. Our work will start in the spring and we hope it will be done in December. It may at some point be our headquarters.
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