What the Payment Council’s report means for the ATM

The UK Payment Council report which was published today highlights both the increased use of the ATM as well as the need for banks to roll out new services at this channel. It is clear that ATMs dominate the way in which consumers access their cash as the report states that cash machine withdrawals have almost doubled in the past decade. Much of the increase in ATM traffic is due to consumers using the terminal in place of the branch so the roll out of new functionality to enable this trend to continue will be key. However, cash use in general was found to be declining, consequently banks must continue to innovate at the ATM in order to ensure that it remains an essential point of interaction with the bank.

To continue to generate cost savings and ROI at this terminal, banks should provide value added functionality and, critically, reliability. Whilst enabling new functionality such as mobile top up and contactless is important, banks must not forget the basics. Keeping ATM networks constantly up and running as the number of services and complexity of the channel increases, will be a critical challenge for banks. ATM downtime can damage brand reputation among a consumer demographic who clearly value and expect a quick and convenient service from their bank. Consequently, traditional manual testing of ATMs is no longer enough and automated testing will be one of the key tools for banks looking to maximise ROI and customer service at this channel.

Ian Kerr