What's the deal with cash recycling?

Cash is a big issue for banks. Not only do they handle large quantities of it, they also need to be able to count it effectively, store it safely and replenish it in ATMs while also keeping service people safe from criminals.

In a world of increasing competition for customers with neobanks and major staffing challenges at the branch level, banks need ways to reduce costs. One method gaining traction is cash recycling.

Hyosung America defines cash recyclers as a device that automatically counts cash and separates by denominations for storage within cash cassettes. From there, when a customer needs cash, the recycler can "recycle" that cash from its cassettes.

This in turn helps save time for credit unions and banks as tellers do not need to spend time counting cash by hand.

"Like many businesses today, our bank and credit union customers are looking for ways to reduce labor costs and increase efficiency — especially as they grapple with staffing challenges and tellers are asked to do more than just perform transactions," Jeremiah O'Connor, sales director at MVP Financial Equipment, said in an email interview. "TCRs fit the bill. Because a TCR is almost 100% automated, it saves time spent on routine cash management tasks, speeding up transactions and freeing up a teller's time so they can spend more time on customer service and selling products and services. Being able to recycle cash also reduces the number of cash-in-transit deliveries and pickups saving the institution money."

The TCR machines also handle other issues, such as surplus cash and teller error. With TCRs, banks can recycle that surplus cash back to the customer and the automatic counting removes the human error component, O'Connor said.

For Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union, based in Berkeley, California, a TCR proved especially useful as it allowed it to more effectively handle customer deposits.

"We have a lot of members that come into our branches to deposit and get cash, and the process we were using created a lot of wasted time and energy. The cash handling process we were using was forcing tellers to put in additional hours after closing and running up overtime pay," Mark Suacillo, VP of IT, facilities and security, Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union, said in an email interview. "But when we were planning the new branch (which opened in 2021), we also knew that any cash solution needed to do more than save tellers time at the end of the day. It needed to be convenient, easy-to-use and make everyday transactions simpler. And it would need to integrate with our core system."

With the cash recyclers, the credit union has had significant savings when it comes to staffing expenses.

"It's also helped to lower our staffing costs. For example, tellers were spending as much as an hour after closing balancing cash," Suacillo said. "Since we installed the TCRs, we've been able to cut that time down to around 15 minutes. Employees appreciate being able to leave earlier. Management likes the fact we have been able to cut overtime expenses."

The credit union purchased two TCRs, one for every two tellers as it normally has four tellers working at any one time. With the machines, the credit union was able to both free up work for tellers and empower them to help members with financial advice and guidance.

"It's freed up our tellers to provide our members with a more personalized experience. Staff have more time to get to know members, ask questions, find out what their financial needs are and how we can help them," Suacillo said.

The experience has worked out so well for them that Cooperative purchased a third machine for its second branch location.

That being said, it's not always a simple task to deploy a cash recycler. Banks and credit unions also need to make sure to train their staff effectively on how to use it.

"Just like with ATMs, low quality cash can be an issue and if the equipment is not working properly, it can cause employees to become frustrated," O'Connor said. " And with any new technology staff training is vital."

In order to address this challenge, financial institutions need to find the right partner to help them throughout the entire process, not just the initial deployment of the devices.

"Overcoming these challenges comes down to working with an experienced partner that can provide the right hardware/software solution to meet the financial institution's needs plus provide regular maintenance and service on a timely basis," O'Connor said. "Training is vital to ensure tellers use it to its full advantage."