Teachers Federal plans 3 branches without tellers in 2018

Three new Teachers Federal Credit Union branches are slated to open in 2018 with video teller machines and no live tellers, according to the credit union.

The credit union plans branches in East Meadow, Kings Park and Stony Brook next year. East Meadow and Kings Park should be open in the first quarter, while Stony Brook is going through the local permit process, said Robert G. Allen, the president and chief executive officer at Teachers.

The credit union will assign two or three tellers at its headquarters in Hauppauge to interact through a video screen with customers at the new branches.

Those tellers can accept check deposits, dispense cash and perform other standard teller duties.

The video machines can also act as standard ATMs.

“The technology is there, so we are going to utilize it,” Allen said.

Teachers, which has $5 billion in assets, will staff each branch with other employees. “The employees will now have more time to work directly with members,” he said.

He said some of Teachers’ 25 current branches would convert to the new model “in time.”

Other area banks and credit unions also have shifted to the new model.

NEFCU, a credit union based in Westbury, has opened three branches without tellers, including one in Levittown in September. It opened one in Deer Park earlier this year and Bay Shore last year.

NEFCU said last month that it has processed more than 14,000 transactions through the interactive teller machines in 2017. That figure includes the Bay Shore and Deer Park branches as well as an interactive machine used for training in Westbury.

Uniondale-based Flushing Financial has a similar service at some of its branches, including in Uniondale. That branch also has staffers.

Bethpage Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union on Long Island in terms of assets at $7.7 billion, doesn’t plan to use video tellers, the company said.

“Instead, we employ live service tellers at all of our 34 branches where our members’ banking needs are handled with extraordinary personalized service,” Bethpage wrote in a statement.