Loomis, whose armored trucks have been a familiar sight on Spokanes streets for most of a century, says its pursuing new avenues in cash handling services to help drive its continued growth.


New products and services the companys Spokane branch has introduced or plans to roll out here soon include whats called borderless banking, coin rolling, a new kind of safe deposit box, and a coin deposit system.


You have to be innovative to drive new revenue, and thats what were doing, says Ron Turlington, an account executive at the Spokane branch.


Loomis still relies heavily on its armored transport services for its revenue, and is banking on the reputation it has built with Spokane-area customers through that line of business to help pave the way for its new services, says branch manager Dan Schulberg.


Our reputation is the reason weve been able to come this far, Schulberg says. Some customers have contracts with us that date back to the 1940s.


Although some people believe Americans are using less cash, due to the prevalence of debit cards and credit cards, the use of cash actually is increasing 4 percent a year, Schulberg says. Thats encouraging to Loomis, especially as it expands its role in the cash handling industry.


Theres a common misconception that cash is shrinking, but were not moving toward an entirely plastic society, he asserts. And thats helping our business.


The company, then called Loomis Armored Inc., opened 100 years ago in Portland, Ore., and launched its Spokane operation in the 1920s, Schulberg says. In 1997, after having moved to Houston, it bought the assets of Wells Fargo Armored Service and changed its name to Loomis, Fargo & Co. In 2001, Stockholm-based Securitas AB bought the assets of Loomis, Fargo & Co., and earlier this year, rebranded both its European and U.S. cash-handling operations under the name Loomis.


Securitas global sales total $1.6 billion, and it has 200 branches in the U.S. Schulberg declines to disclose the revenues of the Spokane branch, but says, We expect good growth opportunities locally.


The Spokane branch has been located in a two-story, 7,400-square-foot leased space, at 806 E. Second, since 1961, Schulberg says. For the past three years, it also has leased a 5,200-square-foot building, about a block away, at 225 S. Hatch, to house its coin processing operations, he says. The 70-employee branch operates a fleet of 17 armored trucks that cover most of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, Schulberg says.


Loomis is a certified Federal Reserve terminal, which means its customers can go through the company to buy and sell money to the Fed, he says. An integral part of the cash distribution network here, it supplies the Spokane area with most of its cash from the Fed, transporting it by truck from the Federal Reserves office in Seattle, he says. The company has several competitors here, but its the only cash handler that operates a Federal Reserve-certified coin processing terminal, he says.


For financial institutions, retailers, and other businesses, Loomis provides deposit pickups, delivery of cash, and emergency and special transport services. Schulberg claims that nearly all of the financial institutions in Spokane use Loomis to distribute currency and coins.


Since Loomis has captured most of that market share, it has been focusing on penetrating other facets of the cash handling industry. For the past five years, it has offered borderless banking, also called virtual vaults, to financial institutions, primarily those from outside the Spokane area that have customers here, but lack a brick-and-mortar presence.


Typically, banks that have business customers in an area where they dont have a branch depend on other banks to manage their money, which involves a complex system of rates and fees and several different contact points. With borderless banking, Loomis picks up a customers deposit and transports the money to its own facility. Loomis tellers then process that money and transmit account data electronically to the bank.


A bank networks presence could be wherever Loomis is, Turlington says.


Conversely, the Spokane branch prepares about 200 cash deliveries a day for bank customers using the borderless bank system, Schulberg says. Those customers include grocery stores, big home improvement outlets, restaurants, and movie theaters.


About three years ago, Loomis became a Fed-certified coin processing center, which allowed it to process and redistribute coins here instead of having to transport coins to Seattle for processing, he says. As a result, it now sorts and wraps coins it has transported from the Feds office in Seattle, sorts and wraps coins for banks, and distributes wrapped coins to businesses as well, he says. Loomis wraps about 750,000 rolls of coins a month at its coin processing center on Hatch.


Basically, nearly every roll of coins you see has been wrapped by us, Turlington says.


Meanwhile, Loomis Spokane branch plans to introduce a product called Safe Point within the next few months, he says. Safe Point is a safe deposit box equipped with sorting and electronic components. Commercial customers insert their cash into the safe, which automatically counts the money and transmits the amount of the deposit to the customers bank. The bank then credits that money to the commercial customers account. The machine also detects and rejects counterfeit currency, he says.


Loomis will install the Safe Point safe deposit box at a customers location and for a monthly fee will provide maintenance of the safe, cash processing services, and armored transportation of the money either to the customers bank or to Loomis facility in the case of a borderless banking arrangement, Turlington says. It receives information electronically once a day about the amount of money in the machine, and will come pick up the cash if the machine says its full.


The system is intended to complement the remote deposit capture feature offered by more and more banks. Deposit capture allows customers to scan their checks and submit that information digitally to banks so they dont have to take the checks to the bank. With that method, though, theyre still required to deposit their cash physically, he says. Thus, one of the advantages of Safe Point is that it saves a customer time in transporting money to a bank and preparing bank deposit slips.


Early next year, Loomis plans to deploy a self-service coin deposit system here called Coin Magic, Turlington says. Consumers insert coins into the machine, which will process and sort the coins and issue a voucher for the dollar value of the coins, minus a fee. If the machine is located in a retail store, customers can redeem their voucher for cash at the store checkout or apply the money to their purchases. If they use the machine in a bank, they can redeem the voucher for cash from the teller or deposit it into their account.


Loomis empties the machines, processes the change, and credits the money to a retailers account, or in the case of a bank, deposits the money at the Federal Reserves office in Seattle.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.