NEW ORLEANS -- A technology upgrade now allows Hibernia National Bank to credit accounts with deposits on the same business day for deposits made prior to 5 p.m. at 256 of its ATMs.
This is an extension of the 3 p.m. deadline at most of the bank's teller windows in Louisiana and East Texas. The change was completed last month.
Previously at Hibernia, and currently at most banks across the country, late-afternoon ATM deposits were credited on the next business day, said William Arnold, Hibernia's ATM delivery channel manager. Depending on an ATM's location, the cutoff for credit was from noon to 2 p.m.
The change follows a successful pilot program in the bank's New Orleans branches in 1999 that showed the later cutoff time increased deposit activity at ATMs, Arnold said. Hibernia believes the flexibility of allowing later same-day credit for deposits will increase customers' comfort with and use of ATM deposits.
Only 8 percent of transactions through more than 175,000 ATMs in the PULSE network of 2,000 financial institutions, including Hibernia, are deposits. Cash withdrawals comprise 77 percent of ATM transactions.
"We believe that once customers make that first deposit at an ATM, they will become much more comfortable with it, as we saw when the direct-deposit feature was first introduced," Arnold said.
