First Citizens Bank, United States: An NCR Case Study

The customer

First Citizens Bank opened for business on March 1, 1898, as Bank of Smithfield and has been in continuous operation ever since. First Citizens operates more than 370 branches in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, the District of Columbia, California and Washington. The bank has received multiple national awards for customer satisfaction and overall stability and security.

Headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., First Citizens Bank is the lead subsidiary of First Citizens BancShares Inc. (Nasdaq: FCNCA), which has $18.5 billion in assets.

Another BancShares subsidiary, IronStone Bank, operates an additional 50+ branches in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

BancShares subsidiaries have a total automated teller machine (ATM) network of around 500. Its banks provide superior banking services to individuals, small to mid-sized businesses, professionals and the medical community. First Citizens firmly believes the way it does business sets the company apart.

As the bank puts it, “We don’t just promise to put our customers first; we deliver.” First Citizens achieves this by working hard to cultivate personal banking relationships with clients while building a large, stable financial services network.

The challenge

Beginning in 2002, First Citizens BancShares decided to expand to new markets across the country under the IronStone brand name. One of the main issues with expansion was the lack of check processing facilities in the new service areas.

First Citizens Bank also wanted to enhance relationships with business customers by offering a new, convenient and economical deposit service. The goal was to attract new clients and increase the volume of deposits from existing clients by making First Citizens easier to do business with -- while saving customers time, effort and money.

Another requirement was that the new deposit system had to be easy to integrate into First Citizens’ existing applications, support the early detection of fraudulent items and offer customization for promoting the two banks’ brands to customers. The question, of course, was what platform would provide the low-cost, high-delivery capabilities to meet this challenge?