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Rockingham Heritage Bank

Rockingham Heritage Bank (RHB) is a young – just thirteen years old – and rapidly growing community bank situated in the heart of Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley. As the only locally owned and operated community bank in the City of Harrisonburg and one of two in Rockingham County, the bank prides itself on delivering personalized service to their customers. RHB recognized that personal service often translates into face to face interactions, so they developed a well-placed network of eight branches with plans to continue to grow their local footprint.

With a very successful branch network in place, the bank turned their attention to Automated Teller Machines because they also realized that their customers are typical American consumers - they enjoy 24 hour access to their accounts via ATMs. Sandra McIntyre, Product Manager at Rockingham Heritage Bank, explains their strategy: "We were searching for cost effective way to serve our customers across our two county footprint." She continues, "In the course of shopping for ATMs, we ran across Nationwide Money Services and their Branded Cash program, which has turned out to be a very good program for us and our customers."

Being a fiscally conservative community bank, RHB did not rush immediately into the Branded Cash program without serious due diligence. "We checked Nationwide's references closely," Ms. McIntyre emphasizes, "and they were all quite positive." In the course of shopping for drive-through and through-the-wall ATMs, it became readily apparent that these units would require a huge capital outlay and long lead times to implement. "We looked at all of the options, conducted a worst case scenario analysis, and really thought this through," she says and "the bottom line was that it made the most sense to go with Nationwide Money Services."

In addition to being far more cost effective, RHB considered another important intangible: security. Ms. McIntyre points out that "we really liked the fact that Nationwide's machines were inside Food Lion grocery stores." Not only was the bank able to enjoy significant savings by not having to purchase and deploy their own ATMs, but they avoided many security-related liability issues that could possibly crop up with on-site ATMs. With nine convenient Food Lion locations in place for their customers' surcharge-free use, RHB worked with NMS to add another ATM inside a local supermarket. This location has turned out to be just as successful as the Food Lions, according to Ms. McIntyre: "the supermarket was thrilled to get the ATM inside their store, and it has been a great addition for the Bank's in-store branch."

Being marketing-savvy, the bank designed a well planned campaign to accompany the roll out of their new ATM network. They covered every base: statement stuffers, lobby posters, lobby handouts, drive-through teller reminders, and an ATM locater search service on their website. NMS assisted as well with press releases distributed to local newspapers and media. Ms. McIntyre enthuses that "having a convenient ATM network has made our new accounts Customer Service Representatives' jobs easier." The machines themselves are also marketing vehicles because they are completely branded as belonging to Rockingham Heritage Bank.

From a back office perspective, Ms. McIntyre was pleased to find that "we had a very smooth implementation, it was pretty much hands-off." Nationwide's years of experience in the ATM industry really paid for the bank according to Ms. McIntyre. "NMS did a lot of hand holding with our staff in the very beginning and their support team is easy to work with," she notes. NMS has fine-tuned their support system over the years to include sophisticated e-mail reporting and an easy-to-use Web interface for monitoring their machines. In fact, RHB is so pleased with Nationwide's system that the bank chose them to handle the processing for their recently purchased ATM that they are deploying at a brand new branch.

Looking to the future, the bank plans to expand their ATM network through their partnership with Nationwide Money Services. Case in point: NMS is already working with Rockingham's sister bank to provide them with convenient ATM locations in their service area. Ms. McIntyre points out that "we have a very knowledgeable and active Board of Directors and they have been pleased with the performance of our ATM network." With the Board of Directors and senior management at the bank pleased, and their customer base happy with the convenience of readily accessible surcharge-free ATMs, it is little wonder that Ms. McIntyre concludes that "the Branded Cash program has been a great partnership for us with Nationwide Money Services."

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