Envelope-free ATMs are making deposits at ATMs grow. Michael Kennedy, a senior vice president and head of enterprise payments strategy for Wells Fargo, says Wells' ATM-transaction volume has unquestionably grown, and the conversion of 4,000 ATMs acquired as part of the Wachovia portfolio to envelope-free ATMs has only fueled that growth.
Consumers like automated deposits, Kennedy says. And they are quickly coming to expect automated deposits at every ATM they use. That message echoed from keynote address to panel discussion during last week's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum in Las Vegas.
Bryan Pisciotta, a senior vice president for Citibank, says finding transactions that consumers want and will use at a self-service device has been challenging for financial institutions. For Citi, the challenge has been ongoing for several decades.
Well known for its creativity and inventiveness in the ATM space, Citi has an ATM perspective few other financial institutions can match. Citi's network of 26,000 ATMs includes 856 deposit-taking ATMs, which are pulling in 9,000 deposits per month. Overall, however, Pisciotta says the ATM should be viewed as a way to extend and build a bank's brand.
Tom Swidarski, the president and chief executive of Diebold Inc., identified deposit automation as one of the four "ATM spheres" during his keynote at the Forum, which had a record number of exhibitors and a slight increase in attendees. The other spheres: customer experience, ATM security and outsourcing.
As deposit automation leads to increased ATM-transaction volumes, layered security will become increasingly critical, and this is where the mobile channel comes in, Swidarski says.
"The mobile device can be used to authenticate an ATM transaction," he said.
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FIs are slowly buying in to the benefits of deposit automation as a way to enhance the ATM channel, but what about the connection to mobile?
Mobile is a valuable channel: USAA's widely publicized iPhone offering for mobile check deposits proves that. USAA's mobile banking presentation was one of the Forum's best-attended.
But will FIs see a strong connection between the mobile channel and the ATM, or will they see the two channels as competing?
Swidarski says mobile devices and ATMs as complementary channels.
"We see mobile as the security link," Swidarski said. "Mobile adds a second level of authentication. With the addition of mobile, it's the card, the PIN and your phone. So an ATM transaction cannot be made unless you also enter a PIN that is texted to your phone. It's one way to increase ATM security, which is always a big concern, especially in the U.S. right now."
Market challenges benefit Forum
This year's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum brought in 48 sponsors and exhibitors and more than 670 overall attendees. Sasha Burgansky, associate marketing director for SourceMedia Conferences, which hosts the event, says paid attendance (370 attendees) was up 27 percent from 2008, while overall attendance (exhibitors, sponsors and paid attendees) was up 13 percent.
Most tradeshows have not experienced that same level of growth.
Known among most in the industry as one of the year's big banking shows, next week's Retail Delivery Conference & Expo, hosted by Chicago-based BAI, expects a 20 percent decline in exhibitor attendance from last year. Three of the show's largest exhibitors — NCR Corp., Wincor Nixdorf AG and Diebold — have decided not to exhibit at RD. Instead, all three had a floor presence at last week's ATM, Debit & Prepaid Forum.
"We think the smaller, more focused shows are more cost-effective and beneficial," said Diebold spokeswoman DeAnn Zackeroff.
And NCR spokesman Jeff Dudash says NCR also has chosen to focus on smaller events.
"NCR's strategy around customer events for the remainder of 2009 and going into 2010 will focus on those events which our customers tell us deliver the highest value for them," he said. "This level of dialogue usually comes from tailored programs in the form of road shows or solution-center programs, which facilitate face-to-face discussion."
Other players, such as Nautilus Hyosung, have decided to stick with the RD event — still deeming it a must-attend event.
