ARCA helps New Jersey bank catch counterfeit bills with cash automation solution

Highlands sees immediate benefits after installing CM-18 cash recyclers.

MEBANE, NC (October 1, 2014) — ARCA, a global leader in transaction automation for financial institutions, is helping Vernon, New Jersey-based Highlands State Bank stop losses from counterfeit bills. The $250 million community bank uses ARCA machines in high traffic locations to prevent losses from fake currency. The ARCA CM18 automates cash in, cash out, balancing and inventory.

The bank currently has three CM-18 cash recyclers installed in two branches with plans to add more to new and existing branches. Many of the bank’s clients are businesses or retailers that make bulk cash deposits. Before installing the cash recyclers, the bank would send bundles of money to the Federal Reserve, which would then pull out counterfeit bills and send back a statement of the bank’s loss.

By catching the fake bills at the time of the transaction, Highlands is able to pull them from the deposits in real time. This prevents them from suffering losses by accidentally accepting counterfeit currency in large deposits.

“Now we’re catching it right at the time we do it and it gets pulled out of there,” Steven Ackmann, President and Chief Operating Officer, said. “We’re picking up an awful lot of counterfeit money.”

Ackmann also cited the efficiency of the cash recyclers as another benefit. By speeding up the manual processes associated with counting cash, the bank is able to save on labor costs while giving customers a better branch experience.

“We’re a business-oriented bank here and many of the businesses come in with either bags of deposits or with their regular deposits,” Ackmann said. “It used to be a little bit of a time-consuming process to process those cash transactions. It makes processing the cash very easy.”

Besides saving time in processing large transactions, the CM-18s have freed employee time, allowing Ackmann to cross train his staff to perform other jobs. Tellers are learning other areas of customer service such as opening new accounts, while bankers can now also work the teller line during peak times, making the entire bank more efficient.

“After we better understood some of the challenges Highlands was facing in the branch, as well as the goals they had for their branches going forward, it became evident that the ARCA cash recycler was the right solution to address those challenges and help create more efficiencies,” Andrew Rowe, Vice President of Business Development at ARCA, said. “We are excited to see the progressive approach that Highlands is taking and thankful for their partnership with ARCA.”

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About Highlands State Bank

Highlands State Bank is a community bank, which serves a majority of northern New Jersey, including Sussex County, Passaic County, Morris County and Bergen County. Founded in 2005, Highlands offers traditional banking products and loans mostly to individuals, small- and medium-sized businesses, professionals and government customers.

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