The pre-tax one-time costs associated with this plan are estimated to be
COVID-19 has further reduced in-person transaction volumes across the industry while investments in digital capabilities continue to accelerate and are viewed as required functionality by customers. At Univest, financial center transactions have declined 21% from 2019 to 2020. At the same time, significant investments in and improvements to Univest’s digital capabilities have been made, including but not limited to the addition of the following services:
- Secure Chat – 41% of service center customer contact now occurs through this chat function (more than 2,400 customer chats per month).
- MyCard rules – Gives customers more control over their debit cards, including merchant and spending categories.
- Money Manager – Personal financial management tool, which provides functionality such as spending category tracking, aggregated account views and a net worth summary; more than 3,450 customers are utilizing the tool without awareness raised by marketing (launched June 30th).
- OpenAnywhere – Digital deposit account opening system that allows customers (new and existing) the ability to open checking and savings accounts (consumer only at this time) and to transact against their account immediately. Since the launch on
July 17th , the Bank has opened 257 accounts (22% of which were new customers) without marketing the OpenAnywhere functionality. - Zelle – A person to person payment mechanism similar to Venmo will be added to the Bank’s mobile app in November.
"We believe that it is critical to continue to address the trend in customer preference by serving customers when and how they choose, while also driving efficiencies in operations. We are striving to create a common and consistent customer experience, whether the interaction is in-person, through digital channels or telephonically," said
While Univest continues to make investments to drive this seamless experience and in-person service delivery continues to be an important component, consolidations and relocations will take place in two phases as outlined below.
Phase I –
Schwenksville – Will be closed.Souderton – Lobby access will be permanently closed in this location with the exception of appointment-based access to safe deposit boxes. The night drop and ATM will also remain.Warminster – Lobby access in this location will be closed, while drive-through access, the ATM and night drop will remain. In addition, once renovations are complete, personnel from the Bank’s subsidiary,Univest Capital, Inc. , will be relocated from their current location inBensalem toWarminster .Willow Grove – Will be closed.
Phase II –
Doylestown – The financial center will be closed with staff and operational capability being relocated to the Bank’s existing Bucks Regional Office.Chestnut Hill – Will be closed.Plumsteadville – Will be closed.Perkasie – Will be closed.
About
This press release of Univest and the reports Univest files with the
Additionally, it is difficult to predict the full impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our business. The extent of such impact will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain, including when the coronavirus can be controlled and abated and whether the gradual reopening of businesses will result in a meaningful increase in economic activity. As the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related adverse local and national economic consequences, we could be subject to any of the following risks, any of which could have a material, adverse effect on our business, financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations: (1) demand for our products and services may decline; (2) if the economy is unable to substantially reopen, and high levels of unemployment continue for an extended period of time, loan delinquencies, problem assets, and foreclosures may increase; (3) collateral for loans, especially real estate, may decline in value; (4) our allowance for loan losses may have to be increased if borrowers experience financial difficulties; (5) the net worth and liquidity of loan guarantors may decline, impairing their ability to honor commitments to us; (6) as the result of the decline in the Federal Reserve Board’s target federal funds rate to near 0%, the yield on our assets may decline to a greater extent than the decline in our cost of interest-bearing liabilities; (7) a material decrease in net income or a net loss over several quarters could result in a decrease in the rate of our quarterly cash dividend; (8) our wealth management revenues may decline with continuing market turmoil; (9) litigation, regulatory enforcement risk and reputation risk regarding our participation in the Paycheck Protection Program and the risk that the
CONTACT:Brian J. Richardson UNIVEST FINANCIAL CORPORATION Chief Financial Officer 215-721-2446, RichardsonB@univest.net
Source:
2020 GlobeNewswire, Inc., source