The future of the ATM’s role in the lives of consumers is being determined now, and financial institutions are loathe to see it go. Beyond the capital investment, routine maintenance, the ATM is able to fulfill a wider range of banking transactions in a self-service medium. According to the article from the Fiscal Times, this makes them a near literal cash machine for the FIs that operate them. The economics of maintaining a fleet of ATMs aside, the need to refresh the format must be addressed.
Withdrawals are stagnating as payments with debit cards, credit cards, checks and other non-cash methods have increased exponentially. A Federal Reserve study last year found that there were an estimated 144 billion U.S. non-cash payments with a value of almost $178 trillion in 2015, up almost 21 billion payments and $17 trillion since 2012.
Mercator Advisory Group concurs with the thrust of the article, that in order to remain relevant in the mobile banking world, creating cross-channel interaction capabilities is critical to retain the ATM as a viable consumer touchpoint for Financial Institutions. We delve further into how this interweaving of mobile banking and ATM cash access is being addressed in our recent report Mobile Cash Access 2017: Engaging Customers by Linking Digital Banking to Cash. Please let us know what you think.
Overview by Joseph Walent, Associate Director, Customer Interactions Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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