BOSTON -- FleetBoston Financial is upgrading its ATMs to provide screen instructions in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese or French, depending on market needs, throughout its Northeast network of 3,400 machines.
Russian will be added by early July, 2001. The languages available on particular ATMs will vary based on the region.
Up to four foreign languages can be added per machine. Approximately 75 percent of Fleet's 3,400 ATMs now offer four languages. Spanish and Chinese are the most frequently installed second languages, now available in all machines accommodating four languages, or nearly 2,600 Fleet ATMs. Korean follows, in nearly 2,400 ATMs at Fleet.
Where particularly diverse communities require more than four languages at a single location, Fleet plans to offer additional alternative languages at nearby machines.
Former Summit Bancorp ATMs will expand their foreign language access following systems conversions scheduled later this summer, bringing the total Fleet ATM network to more than 3,800 machines.
Fleet will also introduce a language preset option, a feature that enables ATM users to select the language they prefer to use in all future transactions. Once selected, this language automatically appears each time the customer accesses a Fleet ATM.
Fleet first introduced a second language in select ATMs -- Spanish -- beginning in 1991. It added French in 1993, then Chinese and Korean in 1994. Portuguese was added in 2000. Russian will be added this summer.
Based on 1990 Census data, nearly six million residents 18 or older speak non-English at home, representing about 20 percent of the population, within Fleet's Northeast market.
Last month, Fleet announced plans to introduce 1,420 "talking ATMs" for visually impaired ATM users during the next two years throughout its Northeast retail service area, from Maine to Pennsylvania. Fleet is investigating the feasibility of meeting the foreign language needs of the visually impaired for future use.
