Latest wave of banking automation to be introduced here in two years.

• Author: Young, Laura E.

Canada's chartered banks are embracing automation with a blank cheque.

Technology has entered the banking industry, and the banks must move with the times, says Jim Bradley, the manager of the Royal Bank's Northern Ontario Corporate Banking Centre in Sudbury.

"We're dealing not just in Northern Ontario, but in a world economic environment, whether we like it or not," Bradley says. "The fact is things happen on the world stage that impact on your business."

The industry was not always this complex or competitive. At one time banks were banks and trust companies were trust companies.

In the past 15 years, however, technology developed and the big push in automation began. The waters were further muddied when trust companies added services and foreign banks started attracting more Canadian customers.

At the local level automation became a means of preventing local bank branches from drowning in paperwork, says Wayne Weber, the vice-president of the Bank of Montreal's Northern Ontario division.

It has also helped improve customer service. For example, Weber notes that automation made it possible to offer daily interest savings accounts.

"A lot of this technology is designed to improve the quality of service to our clients," add Bradley.

He notes that services such as automatic payroll and deposit plans and toll-free telephone numbers for loan and mortgage approvals have been made possible by automation.

Bradley says customer service has also improved because the use of automation releases bank staff from the drudgery of paperwork. For example, he says it has made it possible for the Royal to dedicate three or four officers in each of its Sudbury branches to serving senior citizens.

"We're approaching automation, not necessarily to reduce employees," says Weber. "(With automation) we're able to bring more employees out of the back rooms to better service the customer."

The Bank of Montreal has 15 automated banking machines in Northern Ontario from North Bay to Dryden and it plans to add several more this year.

...