This will be possible thanks to an Interactive Teller Machine at the bank’s site on Kenyon Road.

“We want to be able to offer our customers several ways to do banking,” said John Taets, regional bank president for Northwest Bank.

“It just allows people to do their banking when they want to do their banking,” he added.

The device that will make that possible looks and works like a conventional ATM. And Taets said customers can use it just like they use an ATM to get cash.

But the machine offers the chance to connect with a banker to do a lot of other tasks. A customer merely has to tap the screen and a Northwest Bank employee, typically someone from the bank’s service center in Spencer, will come on to help the customer.

“Our live banker service is accessed through our ATM,” Taets said. “It is an advanced technology that connects our customers face-to-face with a live Northwest Bank employee through the ATM video screen.”

Using the live banking service, customers can make deposits and withdrawals, cash checks, transfer funds between accounts and make loan payments. Applying for loans and opening new accounts are about the only things customers will not be able to via this service.

The service will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. At other times, the device will only offer traditional ATM services.

The Interactive Teller Machine is the focal point of the bank’s site at Kenyon Road and Avenue E, across from UnityPoint Health – Trinity Regional Medical Center.

Taets said the bank has owned that site for 15 to 20 years, with the goal of someday expanding there. He said the presence of large employers on the west side of Fort Dodge, including the hospital, Friendship Haven and Iowa Central Community College, makes it an inviting area to expand.

Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, is the general contractor for the project. That company recently finished an expansion of the bank’s office at 10 N. 29th St.

“They continue to do great things for us,” Taets said.

The banking location will open in early September.