A Chicago-based self-styled "green" community bank, set to open in the fourth quarter, has contracted Fiserv for the provision of an environmentally friendly technology platform.
GreenChoice Bank says it intends to operate on a "holistically earth-friendly" basis. To help achieve this, the company will use Fiserv's Premier technology to become "nearly paperless".
The vendor says its systems will encourage environmentally friendly practices, such as online banking and bill pay, remote deposit capture, mobile banking, image-based cheque processing, electronic document management, e-statements and signature capture. Other bank processes, such as account opening and ATM deposits, will also be as paperless as possible.
Harold Sherman, founder and CEO, GreenChoice, says: "We saw an opportunity to target the sustainable business community - a growing market segment that has a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm yet remains relatively untargeted. The Premier platform from Fiserv enables us to leverage leading-edge technology and at the same time implement earth-friendly policies."
GreenChoice will also use outsourced processing through Fiserv's regional data centre in Brookfield, Wisconsin, making it possible for the bank to operate in a much smaller space with much less hardware on site.
"In the past, banks tended to build very resource-intensive in-house operations considered essential to banking. Due in large part to outsourced processing, we're able to offer every service that any commercial bank could from a 3,800-square-foot space, and we can do it more efficiently, less expensively and more responsibly in terms of conserving environmental resources," says Sherman.
The bank is planning a raft of green initiatives which will include advantaged loan and deposit products for customers who "embrace" sustainability, incentives for employees who reduce their carbon footprint, and the encouragement of "green-collar" job creation through loan practices.
Meanwhile, operations will be based in Chicago's Green Exchange building, a former factory being converted according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum standards that will house over 100 environmentally friendly businesses.