News

Cash optimizing software delivers speedy results for Croatian FI

Within three months of deploying Aptra OptiCash software, Erste Bank saw emergency cash deliveries fall by 88 percent and out-of-cash events by 86 percent, NCR says.

May 8, 2015

Erste Bank Croatia, one of the country's three largest banks, recently teamed with NCR Corp. and its channel partner Printec to improve the availability and cost-efficiency of the bank's 600 ATMs, according to a press release.

EBC's ATMs are critical to its service offering as they handle more than 13 million transactions totaling 1.3 billion euros ($1.46 billion) every year, but the FI needed a solution that could help to control costs and improve customer service in the channel, EBC affiliate members manager Zeljko Medved said in the release.

"Although about 23 percent of the cash delivered to our ATMs was returned undispensed, we still had to do emergency cash runs to almost every single ATM in the course of one year."

Based on cash ordering and ATM performance history, Printec and NCR determined that EBC could reduce cash in the network and still lower the number of cash out incidents by deploying Aptra OptiCash software.

"The effect was notable right away," Medved said. "Emergency cash deliveries were reduced by 88 percent and out-of-cash events by 86 percent within the first quarter. Aptra OptiCash has become a critical part of our cash operations."

"Cash management is costly and complicated, yet ATM services are essential for a positive customer experience", said Wolfgang Kneilmann, NCR VP Europe sales. "Most financial institutions underestimate the saving potential an optimized cash management strategy can bring. It doesn't only reduce costs, but automates processes and puts banks in a better position to renegotiate service contracts with cash processors and CITs."