Diebold Inc. executives announced last week at the company’s investor day conference that 431 United States-based banks and credit unions have deployed intelligent deposit ATMs. Nine of the financial institutions have deployed more than 100 envelope-free ATMs.
“The number [of intelligent deposit machine deployments] has doubled since last year, and management expects continued progress with second-tier banks,” Gil B. Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, wrote in his analyst report.
Luria, however, was cautious with his comments.
"I think Diebold presented some evidence that at least some smaller banks are starting to move on deposit automation,” he said. “I am not sure this is enough to conclude that all small banks are moving in this direction, but at least there is some progress. I believe the small banks that are moving are the ones with one of the big 3 and losing customers to those banks because they are advertising deposit automation.”
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Intelligent deposit or envelope-free ATMs cut the cost per transaction to 50 cents from $2, Luria said. “They reduce the frequency of armored car pickups of the envelopes, which must be transported elsewhere, where someone opens them to scan and clear the contents,” he said.
Diebold and other ATM manufacturers have targeted smaller financial institutions as the nation’s three-largest banks have completed or nearly have completed deployment of envelope-free ATMs.
Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., two of the nation’s three largest ATM owners, have completed their rollouts of envelope-free ATMs.
Wells Fargo & Co., the third-largest ATM owner, expects to upgrade all 5,000 of former Wachovia Corp. ATMs to intelligent deposit machines. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo purchased Wachovia in October 2008 for $15.1 billion in an all-stock deal. Wachovia is based in Charlotte, N.C.
Wells Fargo, however, has not set completion date for upgrades to its legacy Wells Fargo ATMs.
Although some smaller banks and credit unions are embracing deposit automation, Luria does not think there will be enough business this year to make up for the decline in demand from the big 3. “But there will be some growth into next year,” he added.
