Bank of America Corp.'s announcement this week that more than one-fifth of its deposit-taking ATMs now image checks?and thus don't require deposit envelopes?shows that so-called envelope-less ATMs are starting to catch on with consumers, says an expert observer. “The announcement is significant if only as a sort of marker showing …
Read More »Cardtronics’ Latest ATM Deal Hands 7-Eleven a Hefty Payoff
The agreement by Cardtronics Inc., the nation's largest ATM operator, to buy 7-Eleven Inc.'s entire U.S. fleet of 5,500 ATMs and Vcom multi-function kiosks hands the convenience-store chain a hefty return on its ATM investment while expandng Houston-based Cardtronics' network of machines by about 20%. The approximately $135 million cash …
Read More »Wells’s New Imaging ATMs May Signal More to Come for the Technology
Banks' efforts to rid ATM deposits of pesky?and costly?envelopes took a step forward on Tuesday with Wells Fargo & Co.'s announcement that it plans to add 825 new machines by year's end that will accept deposits without envelopes. Wells will deploy some 150 of the new ATMs, which allow customers …
Read More »Co-Op Readies a Credit-Union Entry Into ATM Check Imaging
Big banks get most of the attention when the topic turns to check imaging at ATMs. Now credit unions are about to get into the act. Ontario, Calif.-based Co-Op Financial Services, formerly known as the Co-Op Network, plans to make check imaging available to its nearly 2,000 credit-union members in …
Read More »Visa Champions Fed Proposal on Receipts for Small-Ticket Transactions
Small-ticket electronic transactions, particularly those at unattended machines, may get a boost with a proposal that would relax a provision of Regulation E regarding receipts for consumers. The Federal Reserve Board this week requested public comment on the proposal, which would exempt transactions of $15 or less from Reg E's …
Read More »TIO Plans To Start Hybrid ATM-Kiosk Deployments by Start of ’07
The concept of an ATM that also serves as a kiosk for bill payment and other financial services may be getting closer to reality. TIO Networks Inc., a Burnaby, B.C.-based operator of bill-payment kiosks that serve primarily the underbanked, will begin deploying hybrid ATM-kiosk machines by the start of 2007, …
Read More »Banks’ ATM Surcharges Hit New Record, As Do NSF Fees
The average ATM surcharge assessed by banks has risen 4 cents in the past six months, to $1.64, but a drop in ATM foreign fees means banks will collect $4.2 billion in total ATM charges this year, down slightly from the $4.3 billion they took in in 2005. That's according …
Read More »Eye on ATMs: Pass Code Hacker Fallout, Chase Network Expansion
A security expert says publicity about a hacker who was able to trick a cash dispenser into giving out four times as much cash as it debited may do some good in preventing this type of fraud. “I think awareness will go up because of this, and that's half the …
Read More »New Super Switch Lets Visa Handle Transaction Growth, Diversity
Visa USA, which on Wednesday announced it has completed a massive, five-year project to overhaul its authorization platform, says the new system will allow the network to handle expected jumps in both the volume and diversity of electronic transactions. The overhaul, which its chief architect, John Partridge, calls “the single …
Read More »After Some Delay, Check Imaging at ATMs Is Serious Business
Check imaging at ATMs is poised to become a big business, much bigger even than some experts had thought up to now. Driven by the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century (Check 21), enacted in October 2004, banks are just now starting to equip machines to take so-called envelopeless …
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