WASHINGTON -- Pentagon Federal Credit Union, the nation's third largest credit union with $5 billion in assets and 500,000 members, has become one of the first financial institutions to join Allpoint, a surcharge-free ATM network operated by ATM National, Inc.
Other Allpoint participants include Skylight Financial, a provider of checkless bank accounts headquartered in Atlanta, and OBA Bank, a Washington, D.C. metro area community bank.
According to a news release, the network includes more than 23,000 ATMs comprised of the fleets of two of the country's largest ATM operators, Cardtronics and E-Trade Financial. The ATMs are located in all 50 states, with more than 90 percent of them in metropolitan areas.
Another Allpoint partner is Fiserv, which is providing switch services.
Card issuers like Pentagon Federal pay a fixed monthly fee to participate in the network, and ATM operators receive a monthly payment to compensate for the surcharge-free use of their ATMs.
Allpoint also does not require its card issuers to add their own ATMs to the network or to re-issue ATM cards.
Allpoint provides an ATM locator on its Web site. Users who enter a zip code get a list of the 20 closest ATMs and a link to a mapping site for additional directions.
Frank Pollack, Pentagon Federal Credit Union's president and chief executive, said in a news release that his institution's membership is highly mobile and widely dispersed across the country. "It's important that we give them an ATM to use where they aren't penalized with a surcharge when they withdraw money," he said.
Allpoint operator ATM National was founded by Ben Psillas, a co-founder of Internet bank Effinity Financial. In late 2001, Psillas said that he planned on building a network of 30,000 ATMs. At that time, he expected most of the ATMs would be owned by large banks.
In May of 2002, Psillas said that ATM National had signed letters of intent with groups representing 2.4 million debit cards and 13,000 ATMs. Last January, Psillas said that ATM National had received $750,000 in funding from several investors, including Chesapeake Emerging Opportunities Club, Roche Capital and Broadgreen Equities.
Psillas now expects to add another 7,000 ATMs to the network by the end of 2003. ATM National is currently in talks with both banks and independent ATM operators, he said.
