BCR Now The New INS Cashier
The state bank, Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) and the state insurance company, Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) have reached an agreement whereby the BCR will replace the Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago (BCAC), for the collection of funds for the INS.

The BCAC contract expired last Sunday and the INS chose to go with the BCR so that customers can have better services, including direct payment of insurance services automatically from their BCR bank account.

The BCR bank is the largest with the greatest number of customers and is better suited to staff the cash registers for the INS.

At each INS office, BCR personnel will staff the cash registers strictly to collect payments for the benefit of the INS. The BCR "branch" will not offer other banking services.

This is a common practice as many other government institutions, like the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi), the Registro Nacional, already use the services of the BCR to collect payments due to those institutions.

The INS and BCR are talking of the possibility of opening up additional banking services at the INS offices, giving customers a valued added service at INS offices.

According to the Ley de Contratación Administrativa, the INS invited bids from other banks for the services. The BCR won the bid because it offered the same services and conditions but at a better price.

The BCAC had been offering banking services for the INS since 2001, with 58 cash registers and 33 employees, which are expected to move to the BCR while a number may become redundant.

Luis Salas, president of the board of directors of the BCAC, said that his bank participated in the bidding but lost because the operational costs of a small bank are much higher than that of a bank like the BCR.

Salas added that the BCR is much more focused on that type of business directed at a specific market.

The BCR as well as the other state bank, Banco Nacional, and private banks have over the past couple of years, set up "mini branches" in large retail stores like EPA and Pricesmart, offering customers a full range of banking services customized to the store hours. In the case of EPA and PriceSmart, the "mini banks" are also open on Sundays.

The BCR and Banco Nacional have also been opening branches in smaller shopping centres, again with the idea of bringing the banking services closer to their customers.