ATM Vault Cash Management: Five strategies for optimizing a cash program

Tags: Distributors / ISO / IAD, Full Service / Turnkey Provider, Outsourcing, Vault Cash / Cash Management

Type: Guide

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Ongoing sluggishness in the economy continues to put pressure on ATM operators to remain profitable in an environment of rising costs and an uncertain future. In addition, the U.S. market continues to struggle with security breaches and threats, such as ram raids, which have led to increased insurance costs and heightened the need for secure, professional cash handling.

For ATM operators, the current economic state has presented opportunities as well as challenges. Record-low interest rates on cash have allowed some operators to extend their portfolios by acquiring smaller players and absorbing more locations, while some smaller IADs have taken advantage of the opportunity to cut their losses and sell their portfolios.

But as ATM portfolios grow, so do profit-margin pressures. To leverage growth, IADs must free capital to invest in new locations, and that's where the cash-flow quandary comes into play. Those operators once able to squeak by on merchant loads and a handful of sites they replenished themselves find that today's market requires a much more sophisticated approach.

Growth in a portfolio also carries with it increased management challenges for IADs, who historically have not done a good job of keeping their minds on their money. As IADs grow, many have trouble servicing all of their machines, quickly leading them to realize it's not profitable to tie so much of their working capital into what is essentially ATM inventory. Even small to mid-sized IADs experience the limitations of self-funding their portfolios.

This guide, sponsored by Wilmington, Del.-based Cash Connect, the ATM division of Wilmington Savings Fund Society and a provider of vault cash services, offers information on how an IAD can optimize its cash program through the use of a vault cash provider.