Bread, milk and mortgage videoconference

A small bank branch inside a grocery store in Lake Ronkonkoma now offers potential home buyers a video conferencing alternative to waiting for the loan officer to make a weekly visit to the store.

Stop & Shop customers can now step into a private side room at Citizens Bank and talk to a mortgage specialist in Cincinnati via video conference. They can also sign certain forms electronically using a computer tablet that activates a robot arm at the Ohio office that reproduces the signature on paper using a ballpoint pen.

The Rhode Island-based bank announced the launch of the system Wednesday as part of a pilot program at 16 branches in four states, including one in West Hempstead.

"If you walk into a branch and you want to talk to a mortgage expert right then and there we can put you in front of the video conferencing unit, get somebody on the other end," said Citizens Bank chief marketing officer Theresa McLaughlin. If the customer is satisfied with the terms, he or she can sign disclosure documents immediately to get the loan process started.

"It reduces the turnaround time on something as complex as a mortgage by weeks," McLaughlin said. The system in Lake Ronkonkoma has been in place since mid-May and so far has had three customers try it out, bank staff said.

The system was developed with Cisco Systems, which has done trials using variations of the technology with 41 banks around the globe over the past 18 months, including Bank of America and HSBC in Asia, according to Cisco senior director Paul Jameson.

The technology can help banks deal with the problem of how best use limited staff, he said. "If you're a bank you want to get your expertise in front of a customer," he said. "If they can't react to me today then I may walk to a competitor or I may not come back."