Financial Services Institution
May 8, 2025
Upgrading LEDs After Branch Acquisition: A Financial Services Institution Case Study
One of the largest banks in the U.S. (2,600 branches) acquired more than 600 new branch locations and sought to retrofit its interior, exterior and vault lighting with high-efficiency LEDs. Given the massive scope, the bank’s facilities team decided to pivot from their standard inhouse approach and engage an external partner.
The Challenge: Choosing A Trusted LED Lighting Provider
For this national bank, choosing the right provider meant finding someone with deep industry knowledge, experience and the ability to comply with rigorous security standards. In this bank’s eyes, EMC stood out for three key reasons: their turnkey retrofit quote for nine branches offered clear savings and a fast timeline; their decades of experience in secure, regulated industries like finance; and their proven ability to manage large-scale projects for clients with millions of square feet. Because of these strengths, the bank engaged EMC for project labor only with plans to reevaluate the pilot against EMC’s turnkey proposal at the end of the project.
The Solution: LED Lighting for Lobbies, Vaults and Teller Areas
The project ran smoothly with EMC installation crews arriving before bank hours to upgrade lighting in customer-facing lobbies. Crews worked seamlessly with bank staff to ensure proper supervision for work completed in vaults and teller station areas. While focusing exclusively on labor, EMC’s turnkey expertise came in handy when materials logistics challenges arose. EMC stepped up, working closely with the bank’s facilities team and material supplier to resolve storage, ordering and warranty replacement issues to keep the project moving.
The Results: Increased Project Savings for 105 Branches
Final accounting showed EMC’s turnkey retrofit required fewer facilities staff, cut expenses by a third of the total project cost compared to others and would save 193,115 kWh annually. Confident in the quality of work and return on investment, the bank awarded EMC an additional 150 sites for turnkey LED lighting projects.
