Bank in a box earns a Royal welcome.

• Position: Personal Financial Assistant Inc. is backed up by Royal Life Insurance of America - Tar Heel Tattler - Brief Article

One reason that ventures into computerized banking have been disappointing is that consumers are still wary of keyboards or touch screens. But Richard D'Agostino, 45, thinks he's got that beat with his bank in a box.

"It's idiot-proof," says the president of Charlotte-based Personal Financial Assistant Inc. "If someone can watch a soap opera and talk to the grandchildren on the phone at the same time, they've got the learning curve on this mastered."

D'Agostino's remote-banking booh is a kiosk where customers can open a saving or checking account, get a loan, even buy stocks or insurance - all over the phone.

Small units are sold under a lease arrangement; other units run from $65,000 to $85,000. No matter, the guts of the unit are a telephone and a PC. The trick is that the banker, not the customer, controls the computer.

As a personal touch, a digitized image of the banker appears briefly on the computer scree. That's followed by the application form or a chart. The banker, of course, can be in a back office, anywhere. That lets bank and credit unions...