NEW ORLEANS - Bill Raymond sounded a wakeup call at his crack-of-dawn keynote address to about 200 ATM industry executives at Thomson Financial's Sixth Annual ATM Conference, warning those responsible for ATM fleets that the day of reckoning for compliance with ADA guidelines is probably less than a year away.

"There is not a business case for voice guidance at the ATM based on transaction volume that would justify the expense," said Raymond, senior vice president and manager, ATM management and development for Bank of America. "The important thing to remember is that it doesn't matter. You have to do it anyway."

Raymond, who came to New Orleans directly from an Oct. 2 meeting organized by the American Bankers Association with blind advocacy members, laid out a schedule of expected events during the next few months that will provide bankers and ATM deployers with a last chance to be heard before a new set of federal laws are put it into effect by the Department of Justice. It was the second such meeting organized by the ABA.

He said the industry's opportunity to comment on the new rules would come early next year, after the federal Access Board issues its recommendations for new standards. From there, the proposed standards are passed on to the Office of Management and Budget, and then to the Department of Justice. At that time, probably in the second quarter, members of the ATM industry will have an opportunity to comment on the proposal before it becomes law.

He advised banking leaders who haven't yet formulated a policy on updating their fleets to do so immediately.

"If you don't have a program, do it next week. We need to speak with one voice," he said.

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Bank of America, along with Wells Fargo, Fleet and First Union, have led the charge among financial institutions in converting their ATM fleets to talking ATMs, and have worked with blind advocacy groups for more than a year. In fact, Bank of America has already committed to convert 2,500 ATMs in Florida and California.

During his keynote address, entitled "Taking ATMS, the ADA and Your Bank," Raymond announced a massive expansion of that commitment. He said that more than 7,000 talking ATMs, in all geographic areas served by the bank, would be converted during the next four years.

In a subsequent interview with ATMmarketplace, Raymond said the first locations targeted for conversions to talking ATMs are in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Iowa. It is in those states, he said, that the blind community has been most vocal in seeking accessibility.

"It's the right thing to do. It's the mental equivalent of curb cuts to the wheelchair community," he said.

Jim D'Aprile, vice president, self-service/ATM banking for Fleet Bank and chairman of the conference, agreed that the issue is one that can't be ignored.

Neither D'Aprile or Raymond would reveal their overall budget for making the conversions, but both said the actual work involved was expensive, with the price tag as high as $4,000 per machine. Raymond said that figure doesn't include $500,000 in one-time development costs. Fleet has committed to convert more than 1,600 machines, with most of the physical work being done by manufacturers NCR and Diebold.

When asked how he justifies the cost, D'Aprile said there was little choice. "You just have to do it. There's not a business case, it's something we have to do."

The expense is especially difficult for banks to swallow given the early results from Talking ATMs in place. Raymond said that in Bank of America's fleet of 500 talking ATMs in Florida and California, the machines are performing an average of less than two transactions per month. He said the issue is one of education and outreach.

"We can do better than that," he said. "We're trying to re-educate a population that doesn't have this technology, and that takes time."

Raymond told his ATM audience that it was crucial for banks to provide outreach programs to educate the public, and showed a popular television commercial Bank of America aired this year to educate the blind community on its programs.

Consequences

Kurt Helwig, executive director of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association, was the last of eight speakers in an information-packed agenda. His organization hosted a conference, "New ADA Challenges to the ATM Industry," in June. Helwig said time is running out for deployers to get their plans in place.

"There will probably be a year or two to be compliant," he said. "Anyone who owns, deploys or does processing needs to be informed and aware, because it's happening. People need to pay attention."

Both Helwig and Raymond spoke of a business landscape in which deployers who don't comply with the new regulations, once passed by the Department of Justice, could become targets of lawsuits that could be filed by individuals or organizations.

"I don't want to give lawyers any ideas," Raymond joked, "but there could be lots of exposure once the law is passed."