DUBLIN, Ireland -- Bank of Ireland (BoI) has promised to install a minimum of three extra ATMs in every county as part of its link up with Musgrave, Ireland's largest food and grocery distributor.
According to a report in Online Ireland, the Musgrave link-up will see 500 BoI ATMs installed in SuperValu and Centra supermarkets throughout the country over the next two years.
According to BoI, this ATM expansion program is part of an ongoing investment in its infrastructure which will make the it the number one ATM provider of in Ireland.
"The first phase of this program will see over half of the ATMs deployed in rural locations with every county represented," said Des Crowley, Bol's chief executive of retail financial services. "We are giving a commitment that, by June 2003, every county will have a minimum of three additional ATMs and this will increase to five when the project is finalized."
On completion of the program, the bank will have increased its ATM network from 546 machines nationwide to 1,046, providing almost half of the total number of ATMs in Ireland.
Last July, Bol announced it had partnered with UK-based independent Hanco ATM Systems and planned to install 500 ATMs in retail locations. However, a Bol spokeswoman told ATMmarketplace in January that the bank no longer had a relationship with Hanco.
Also in January, Carmel Foley, Ireland's director of consumer affairs, called on Irish banks to provide more ATMs. Foley said that she had been contacted by several independent ATM providers who wanted to install ATMs in Ireland. She said she was opposed to independent operators because her office had no power to regulate their ATM fees.
(See related story Ireland's director of consumer affairs opposes independent ATM operators)
