Going Green with Enhanced Online Banking Services

Investing in innovation and technology for your financial institution can increase operational efficiencies, build customer satisfaction and decrease costs and errors, but it also very beneficial for meeting today's environmental challenges - including the need to move to a low carbon economy and reduce wastes. Many technologies that are considered to be green are also huge cost savers for financial institutions and their customers. Technological advancement and innovation is the key to breaking the link between economic growth and resource depletion and environmental degradation. So what can the financial industry do to go green while saving a little green at the same time?

Building up your internet banking to offer functionality-rich, self-service offerings is one of the best ways a financial institution can move in the direction of going green. By offering services such as online account opening, account-to-account transfers, direct deposits, eStatements, and bill pay, customers can cut down unnecessary trips to the branch - saving gas, paper, time and money. Using online account opening can eliminate a trip to a branch, reduce paperwork and cut the account process down from about an hour to ten minutes. This reduces CO2 emissions and forests. The cost of opening an account is also immensely reduced from about $60/application to $15/application. If a customer uses a account-to-account transfer service, they eliminate the need to write a check and a trip for the customer or mailman to the financial institution the money is being transferred to. The customer only needs to go online and the money is transferred electronically via the ACH network. Direct deposits dispose of paper checks and deposit slips used in the traditional paper employee paycheck method. Paper statements and bills is perhaps one of the most wasteful uses of paper, which can easily be prevented with eStatements, online bill presentment and online bill payment. According to a recent Green Banking Study by Javelin, three out of four consumers get paper statements and if every U.S. household used only eStatements, online bill presentment and online bill payment options, 687,000 tons of paper would be saved in only one year. This is enough paper to circle the earth 239 times!*

Going paperless with the use of online banking options not only reduces CO2 emissions and paper use, but it also provides additional security benefits to customers by reducing the risk of late fees and fraud. Financial institutions can save by cutting back paper and postage, so there is an opportunity to promote this to customers based on green benefits (avoiding waste) and personal advantages, including speed, convenience and the security of keeping personal records out of the postal system. Identity theft usually occurs with intercepted mail. Furthermore, when a person is managing their money online, they are more on top of their financial activities due to its 24x7 convenience and more likely to see fraud when it occurs. Once customers are online, financial institutions have the opportunity to enlist them in waste saving campaigns by canceling paper in favor of electronic communication. This can include account statements, notifications for urgent matters such as overdrafts, routine policy changes and marketing promotions that can be emailed or posted online.

uMonitor offers a variety of online banking solutions for financial institutions and their customers engage in environmentally responsible banking:

uOpen & uFund^® - online account opening and funding solution - allows customers to open and fund a new deposit or savings account online, 24x7. This service automates the account opening and funding process so all backend processes, such as Patriot Act Compliance, IDV and IDA and cross sell and up sell, are done seamlessly online, without the waste of multiple paper applications and a trip to the branch. There is also the option of applying for loans, with automatic credit check and approval.

uTransfer^® - account-to-account funds transfer solution - allows customers to move money between accounts at different financial institutions online, 24x7. This eliminates writing a check for one account and then either sending it in the mail or driving to a branch to deposit the money. Transfers can be set up as on demand, scheduled or recurring to fit the customer's needs.

uAdvise^® - advisor services - improve financial advisors' client relationships and allow financial professionals to get a total picture of internal and external assets and liabilities of a client's accounts. It brings unprecedented levels of client management capabilities to financial professionals to improve office productivity while reducing paperwork. Advisors and clients can create, manage, store and share documents with one another. The system also enables the Financial Professional the ability to set reminders for follow-ups and modifications online.

Are you green? What is your financial institution or company doing to help the environment? Email us and let us know ...

*"The Four E's of Green Banking - Educate, Enable, Make It Easy - And Be Ernest" Javelin Research, June 2008.