STRATEGIC PARTNERS
May 15, 2003
PADERBORN, Germany -- Wincor Nixdorf is the first ATM manufacturer to have a cash recycling system -- the ProCash 3100 -- approved by Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank.
According to a news release, this means that the system can now be used with its full recycling functionality across the euro-zone, including Germany. The Advisory Board of the European Central Bank (made up of ECB staff and representatives of all the national central banks in the euro-zone) had appointed the Bundesbank as its certification agent.
Working with the ECB and Bundesbank, Wincor Nixdorf enhanced the ProCash 3100's ability to detect counterfeit bills and created a system for retaining those bills, according to Peter Wöffen, Wincor Nixdorf's product manager for Cash Recycling Systems. With the Bundesbank approval, Wöffen said, cash deposited at the 3100 can now be made available for withdrawals at the machine.
Previously in Germany, only cash checked by the provincial central banks was allowed to be put into circulation.
In keeping with regulations approved by the Bundesbank and German financial watchdogs BKA and ZKA as early as 1999 -- which are identical to the approved recycling system operation principles now set out by the ECB in its framework directives -- signature data (ID markers) are now produced from suspected and actual counterfeit banknotes. The markers make it possible to associate counterfeit bills with specific cardholders to help track counterfeiting activity, Wöffen said.
A further requirement from Bundesbank is that recycling systems must not be allowed to deteriorate the circulation quality of banknotes. At the ECB's request, the Bundesbank worked with Wincor Nixdorf and other manufacturers to develop measurement criteria to determine bill conditions such as tears, holes and soiling. Recycling systems of all manufacturers can now be measured against the same standards, according to the release.
"The cash recycling approval means further potential for cost reduction and efficiency gains are opening up for banks and building societies," Wöffen said.
Wöffen said that cash recycling can help optimize branch business processes and free staff from processing deposits to allow them to focus on more important tasks.
According to the release, the deposit-only function of the 3100 is producing cost savings associated with the processing of moneybags and cash deposits for the financial institutions already using it. The addition of cash recycling will achieve further cost savings by stemming the cost of after-deposit administration, cash replenishment and transportation.
About 4,000 ProCash 3100s have been deployed, Wöffen said, although only about 1,000 of them are being used for cash recycling in countries where regulations did not previously prohibit it.
