CanU Save 'Green' by Going Green?

As Kermit the Frog once said: "It's not easy being green," but it is getting easier. We all could be doing our part to reduce waste, lower costs and save the planet - is your Financial Institution doing all it can? And if you are, is it costing you a lot?

Typically, it costs anywhere from $.50 to $1 to assemble and send a monthly statement to your customers. If you were to convert your customers to a paperless system, an electronic statement costs about $.11 - a savings of anywhere from $.39 to $.89 per customer, per month. It isn't just the money your Financial Institution would be saving, there is also the world to consider. According to research done by the Electronic Payments Foundation, and cited in June 2007's Money Magazine, if all Americans banked online, 18.5 million trees would be saved, per year, and toxins in the air from paper creation and transport could be reduced by 2.2 billion tons.

These benefits are broad and far ranging, and can seem hard to bring down to a tangible level for your customer. In order to bring it to a more personal level for your customer, online banking saves them time and money. It's a time saver in that it takes approximately 15 minutes to pay bills online each month, from start to finish, according to Javelin Strategy and Research, whereas to pay by hand can take up to eight times longer. For your customers, online transactions are free, which can save them an average of $60 per year in postage, according to a study by the National Resources Defense Council for Money Magazine research, also cited in the June 2007 issue. And we haven't even included their savings from not getting in their car or the value of their time.

There is also the security factor to consider. Bruce Cundiff, a Javelin research analyst, said in an American Banker article that nearly 70% of identity fraud is perpetuated using paper documents. Fraud is also detected sooner via the online channel, by an average of 18 days versus114 days for those who still rely on paper statements.

uMonitor's suite of products, including uOpen & uFund^® and uTransfer^® can help your customers move online, and do more things than they typically do in the branch. Yes, with uMonitor, uCan save green by going green with an online solution in a streamlined fashion.