ATM innovation follows hurricane destruction in Puerto Rico

From ATMmarketplace.com

As Puerto Ricans rebuild their lives after the devastation of Hurricane Maria, Oriental Bank, a subsidiary of OFG Bancorp, is bringing innovation to the fore with the island's first ATMs incorporating real-time audio-video communication with live tellers.

"Video ATMs are the latest capital investments being made by Oriental to offer new and different customer solutions as another way to help Puerto Rico's recovery," Ganesh Kumar, senior executive vice president and chief operating officer at OFG Bancorp, said in a press release. "We can't let the hurricanes stop us. We have to forge ahead to help customers get on with their lives and help the economy get moving again."

Customers of the bank will be able to use the new ATMs for transactions that include payments on loans, cards and utilities; deposits and withdrawals; check cashing; and money transfers, the release said.

"People want banks to make their lives easier," said Debbie Sabater, Oriental's senior vice president of retail strategy. "Our video ATMs provide easy and convenient access to ATM banking services with the added benefit of a personal interaction of a teller at the touch of a button."

Oriental's first video ATMs to go live are located at the Plaza Las Américas branch in the capital city of San Juan. They are available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Additional video ATMs are available at the drive-through lane of the Caguas Bairoa branch approximately 14 miles south of San Juan, with hours Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"This is the beginning of Oriental's rollout of video ATMs in other locations," Sabater said. "It is a new way of replicating our banking services to strategically expand our presence on the island."