This fall, Cadence will install two drive-up APTRA™ Interactive Teller units from NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), which will extend service hours and create friendly and efficient customer experiences. The new banking location will be located at the corner of 23rd St. and Third Ave. North, the site of the old Social Grill.

APTRA Interactive Teller is the only ATM-based technology that allows people to talk to a live remote teller, while giving the teller remote control over the machine to conduct transactions. Cadence will offer remote teller services from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. CST, Mondays through Fridays, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST on Saturdays, more than doubling the availability of its branch service hours.

"We are always exploring new ways to provide our customers with richer, more flexible experiences to conduct their financial transactions," said Sam Tortorici, CEO for Cadence Bank. "These remote tellers allow us to efficiently increase our service hours without substantially increasing costs."

Adding an additional 10 hours of branch service each week to a typical financial institution branch can cost as much as $50,000 per year. APTRA Interactive Teller can conduct approximately 95 percent of typical teller transactions over the same timeframe at a fraction of the operational cost.1

Through its APTRA Interactive Tellers, Cadence can offer secure teller services during non-traditional banking hours and provide full teller services in areas not served by branches. Cadence customers will be able to use NCR APTRA Interactive Teller's advanced capabilities to conduct many of the same transactions as they would when interacting with a teller across the desk. These include deposits, withdrawals, check cashing, bill and loan payments, account transfers, opening new accounts and initiating loans.

"Our customers' satisfaction is incredibly important to us and was a key driver in this decision," Tortorici said. "Offering our clients the ability to engage with livee tellers longer and at hours convenient to them was a big attraction in deploying this new technology."

According to independent studies, adoption of this new technology is high. Early deployers of the technology have reported an average 90 percent satisfaction rate among users ages 25 years or older, while more than 80 percent of general banking customers ages 25 to 55 indicate they are willing to use video teller machines for general banking transactions.

"Cadence Bank is taking an innovative approach to make their customers' everyday lives easier," said Brian Bailey, vice president and general manager, NCR Branch Transformation. "NCR APTRA Interactive Teller is helping Cadence extend their retail network and give their customers more flexibility in their day."

Cadence expects to install the two APTRA Interactive Tellers by this fall. An additional drive-up and two walk-up APTRA Interactive Tellers will be installed later this year at locations in Birmingham yet to be determined.