FNB adding technology to York's Metro Bank locations

Metro Bank customers worried about changes ahead of a merger with First National Bank will have new technology to explore once the deal is finalized on Feb. 12.

Pittsburgh-based FNB Corp. and central Pennsylvania-based Metro Bancorp first announced plans for the $474 million acquisition in August, and both companies' shareholders approved the terms in early January, according to a joint announcement.

FNB sent out a news release Monday explaining numerous coming technological advances, highlighted by the addition of Intelligent Teller Machines (ITMs), which will be available this spring in former Metro Bank locations.

Metro Bank customers fear changes from FNB merger

FNB spokeswoman Jennifer Reel wrote in an email that the ITMs, which allow customers to chat with specialized tellers via video outside of traditional hours, will be added to all five former Metro locations in York County.

“One of the benefits of the roll-out of our technology plan is actually the addition of 10 service hours per week per branch because of the deployment of technology at 14 of those locations," Vincent J. Delie Jr., FNB’s president and CEO, said during last week’s earning’s call. "So, we are actually extending the hours that a client can do face-to-face transactions by 10 hours.”

Longtime Metro customers have expressed fears that FNB's takeover will alter Metro's extended hours, which include staying open until 6 or 7 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.

Spring Garden resident Madeline Mirasol, a Metro customer since 2008, said the bank's "super-accessible hours" were what attracted her in the first place, but she's intrigued by the possibility of being able to find her bank if she's traveling in Maryland or Ohio.

Metro Bank only has offices in central Pennsylvania, while FNB has 300 locations throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia.

Mirasol said she briefly skimmed the cover letter of the big packet of information Metro and FNB mailed to her, but she's hopeful not much will change.

With regards to the ITMs, Mirasol has two reservations about using such a service.

"The first is, am I talking to a teller at the ATM, where, potentially, there's a line of people waiting to use the machine after me, and if it's after hours, we're in close proximity?" she said. "If so, I'd probably avoid that.

"The second is if I'm needing to deposit cash," Mirasol continued. "For some reason, I'm averse to putting cash into a machine and having the machine count it. So even if there's a human being I'm talking to, I'm not sure I'd still want to make an electronic deposit in that way."

Mirasol concluded that she'd probably just wait until the bank was open to make any transactions.

Reel wrote that FNB would also be installing drive-up Smart ATMs at every Metro Bank location.

FNB posted a video to its website to detail all the new technology, which also includes improvements to its mobile banking app and in-branch kiosks to aid account selections.

— Reach David Weissman at dweissman@yorkdispatch.com.