Karen Cozza of Thomaston Savings Bank receives the institution’s Employee of the Quarter award from bank President and Chief Executive Officer David Carlson.
Thomaston Savings Bank has named Karen Cozza as its Employee of the Quarter. She has been employed by the bank since 1990, and serves as the Internet banking coordinator for Thomaston Savings.
Cozza was chosen for the award partly because of her volunteerism inside and outside of the bank. She spends about 1,700 hours a year volunteering for the Thomaston Ambulance Service as an emergency medical technician. Cozza’s peers also say she is always willing to help at work when needed.
In honor of her achievements, David Carlson, the bank’s president and chief executive officer, presented Cozza with the Employee of the Quarter award and a gift certificate to an area restaurant.
Thomaston Savings Bank has been part of Thomaston’s heritage since 1874. It currently operates six branch locations in addition to its main office.
COCC Keeps Liberty
Liberty Bank of Middletown has renewed its agreement with Avon-based COCC to provide next-generation check-and-statement image-processing services. The $2.5 billion savings bank already has saved a substantial amount of money while receiving responsive service as a result of its three-year partnership with COCC.
“We are looking forward to continued savings and service innovation with COCC,” said Barry Abramowitz, chief information officer at Liberty Bank. “We know that COCC can meet every need in the rapidly changing check processing industry, from paper processing to full-image exchange.”
Liberty Bank will continue to use COCC’s all-image platform, which provides online access to check images at every stage of item processing. Those services include comprehensive proof and transit, inclearing and return services, and image statements. Abramowitz said Liberty expects to add several advanced check services, such as customer access to check images, image-enabled ATMs and image exchange in the future.
“The industry is moving rapidly toward image exchange,” he said. “We wanted a partner that not only exhibited leadership in the image arena but experience as well. COCC is that partner.”
COCC began exchanging images on behalf of its client institutions more than a year ago and has steadily increased its image-enabled client base since then. The company has implemented image exchange at 20 percent of its check processing clients and supports the full range of image services, from outgoing image cash letters to image inclearing and return. COCC transmitted more than 500,000 check images to the Federal Reserve last month.
Commitments to image exchange are expected to raise COCC’s percentage of production clients to 31 percent by the end of the year. In April, COCC reported that 17 percent of its clients already had committed to installing the company’s e-Statement system.
“Image is the next big thing in banking,” said Joseph D. Lockwood, chief technology officer at COCC. “Over the next two years, financial institutions will observe a sea change in check processing operations. We are pleased to offer all of those options to Liberty Bank.”
Robin Fujio, vice president at Liberty Bank, said that COCC has continued to help the bank increase its operating efficiency through the use of bank-wide image research, statement printing, and postage saving capabilities. “Over the past three years, COCC has been highly responsive to our needs and, as a result, we are very pleased to renew our contract,” she noted.
