Retail branch banking is alive and well. Customers everywhere are being invited inside bank doors for one-on-one service while new technologies speed customers through teller and drive-through lanes. During the last ten years, the number of branch locations increased 15%, while in 2005 alone, the growth was 3%. To accommodate this industry-wide expansion, U.S. banks were predicted to upgrade 30% of their branches during 2006, according to Datamonitor, and nearly double their spending for technology to $1.4 billion.

Reduce the Risk of Identity Fraud and Substantially Reduce Cost
While today’s retail banking environment offers exciting opportunities for organic growth, the financial services sector faces new attacks on customer security due to identity fraud. To combat such threats, leading banks are implementing identity-confirming strategies which enable them to comply with Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council guidelines for identity verification. Technology solutions for verifying customer identification are highly secure and simple to use. And the best solutions incorporate technologies with which customers are familiar and accept as an everyday part of commerce. Never has “retail” touched the “branch” in a more attractive and positive fashion.

Hypercom technology solutions empower banks to:

• Utilize PCI-approved PIN pads to acquire Personal Identification Numbers (PINs)when customers swipe their bank cards. PCI approval is a potential new standard for the banking industry and early adopters are ensuring their processes meet probable industry guidelines
• Adopt uniform interfaces across entire enterprises for supporting multiple signature methods and document technologies
• Bring security outside the branch by using hardened, all-weather PIN pads and modular solutions
• Combine two or more of these strategies for minimum-risk, multi-factor authentication

Hypercom helps combat identity theft by offering trusted, secure, standards-tested solutions that reduce fraud while improving the customer experience at all points of banking service. Hypercom solutions integrate with existing bank hardware and software right out of the box, representing a truly versatile infrastructure component that can be utilized throughout various application processes to minimize risk.

Eliminate Paper Documents with Electronic Signatures
Partnering with Communication Intelligence Corporation (CIC), Hypercom offers a proven technology for capturing electronic or biometric signatures and legally binding them to paperless transactions in a tamper-evident manner. This proven technology maximizes transaction integrity and provides strong support for dispute resolution. Electronic signatures automate business and back-office processes from account opening and loan applications to financial agreements to signature cards and signature verification. And it reduces costs through staff reductions in manual processing and document control, in scanning and re-keying paper forms, and significantly in courier costs. One multi-national customer estimated $1.6 million in short-term savings after implementing this technology.

Reduce the Cost of ATM Operations
As retail banks spend more for technology improvements, they also search for ways to reduce costs. One significant cost-saving measure is upgrading dial ATMs to Internet Protocol (IP) technology without replacing the hardware. Hypercom’s ATMConnect solution brings the benefits of IP to dial-mode ATM operations – faster speeds, lower costs, multiple connections and wider bandwidths. By converting legacy dial hardware to IP and encrypting transactions using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, ATMConnect delivers greater swipe-to-host security.

In addition to IP communication, ATMConnect delivers:

• Automated, plug-and-play setup
• Remote management and monitoring by experienced Hypercom engineers
• Firewall protection
• Multi-homing (multiple IP addresses through a single Ethernet port)
• Secure transaction transport from ATM to processing host

Increase Services with Unattended Solutions
Customers seem to all want to bank during the same times of the day – on their way to work, during lunch hours or on their way home. So providing the right mix of live teller interaction while controlling costs is a delicate balance.
In the past, Automated Teller Machines and drive-through banking expanded customer service nicely, but those conveniences lacked the ability to reliably verify customer identity. Today, outdoor payment solutions from Hypercom and its partners help bank executives manage identity verification while improving customer convenience. Whether on the Web, face-to-face or through call centers, customers experience the same branded service outside as they do inside the branch. Around the clock, seven days a week.