Cape Cod Five Cent Savings Bank is dropping out of the high school banking game, or graduating, depending on how one looks at it, as Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union takes on extra coursework by opening its fourth such branch.

The strategies of Cape Cod Five and Jeanne D’Arc illustrate the differing schools of thought on in-school banking – some want to move on from a once-trendy outreach experiment, while others believe lasting lessons in banking fundamentals are more easily taught within an actual bank.

Cape Cod Five opened its first of three eventual branches more than a decade ago, said Dorothy Savarese, CEO. But nowadays it’s not as easy for the public to walk into a high school to do their banking, thanks largely to the Columbine High School shootings and 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But more importantly, the branches were falling down in their primary objective of educating students. Savarese said the programs weren’t generating enough interest, and weren’t reaching enough young people in the community. Now, the bank is launching different financial education programs in schools, but without the branch presence.

As for profits, the branches never turned any – but that was expected.

“We went into them knowing that on a per-branch basis, these would not be profitable… For years they operated without a profit, and that’s been OK,” she said.

A Teachable Moment

Jeanne D’Arc’s Senior Vice President Scott Flagg, also acknowledged the branches aren’t there to rake in deposits. But it’s important to have a hands-on laboratory for the lessons Jeanne D’Arc teaches in high schools; students gain course credit by working in the branches, and Flagg said the programs have had consistent enrollment.

Both Flagg and Savarese emphasized the timeliness of delving into financial education. America is in the mother of all financial “teachable moments” right now, with many people buried in debt or otherwise living beyond their means.

“We’re now seeing the results of a whole generation or more not understanding … the marketplace,” said David E. Floreen, senior vice president for the Massachusetts Bankers Association.

Floreen said Mass Bankers has worked with the Massachusetts Financial Education Collaborative, which includes banks, nonprofits and government officials, to compare financial education best practices. The group recently had a summit on the topic at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

But bank branches in schools, while still useful in some cases, aren’t considered a hot topic, he said.

“[In-school banking] was really sort of interesting and cutting-edge 15-20 years ago, when most retail banking was done at a branch,” Floreen said. But as banking becomes an increasingly electronic activity, especially among younger generations, the idea of opening up physical branches in schools has lost a little luster.

While Cape Cod Five’s cost-benefit analysis of high school branches resulted in their retreat from the idea, Flagg says his credit union believes the benefits – intangible though they may be, profit-wise – make it a good idea.

Each branch opening has a different price tag attached, but it involves setting up a minimalist branch in a roughly 300-square-foot space in the school. After that, overhead is low, he said. Jeanne D’Arc opened its first branch in 1997, and just got permission to open a fourth high school branch in Methuen High School. The credit union operates in Lowell, Dracut and Nashoba Valley Technical High School in Westford.

For banks that launch school branches, the size of the investment varies enormously, said Kathryn Kelly, associate director with the American Bankers Association’s Education Foundation. Some banks pile on new equipment, while others set up shop in abandoned closet space.

The Shriver Center, a Chicago nonprofit that studies poverty law, recently released a study of several schools that opened retail banking branches. One featured school branch in Chicago’s Curie Metro High School cost $150,000 for the 2004-2005 school year, though its parent bank’s contribution was less than $50,000.

Robert Talerman, COO of Cape Cod Five, said he didn’t know how much the bank put up for its initial investment back in the 1990s. The branches are more like kiosks than full-service branches, he said, but they did require equipment and furnishings and an employee to man the room.

“It is a legitimate investment,” he said, but in this case, that time and energy is best served elsewhere.