A recent Celent report finds that while the majority offinancial institutions said improving branch sales and serviceperformance was their top branch-channel priority, few haveinvested in technology to help realize that goal.

According to the report, “Branch Banking in a MultichannelWorld,” less than a third of surveyed financial institutions (28%)have operational CRM systems, and 23% have analytic CRM.

Account opening remains largely manual, with only 29% offeringautomated, paperless systems. Loan origination is similarly manualand relies on the movement of paper, with just one in five bankshaving automated systems.

In addition, cash handling requires dual control, largely manualwork at most financial institutions. Only a fourth of surveyedfinancial institutions use teller cash recycling and those that dogenerally limit usage to only the most cash-rich branches.

The upside in the report? The research revealed that creditunions have a distinct lead over banks in terms of branchautomation solution usage. While bankers ranked the branch channelas the top priority, for credit unions it is the Internet channel,with 56% ranking it first and 77% among the top two priorities. Thebranch channel followed at 20% and 55% respectively, and mobilebanking third at 11% and 31% respectively.

“Most financial institutions are under considerable pressure toboth reduce costs and improve branch sales and serviceeffectiveness,” said Bob Meara, senior analyst with Celent'sBanking Group and author of the report. “Credit unions appear to beway ahead of banks in terms of having invested in technologies tohelp bring this about. Banks have lots of catching up to do.”