Archive for the ‘Industry news’ Category

Phil Rock statement on ATM fee caps

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Today, ATM Network founder Phil Rock sent the following letter to key senators regarding a proposed cap on ATM fees.

If you agree, please link to this post. You can also email a copy of the letter to your senator using the links at the bottom of this page. Or sign the ATMIA petition.

May 17, 2010
The Honorable Christopher Dodd
448 Russell Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator,
I am writing to urge you to oppose Amendment #3812 to S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, which places caps on ATM surcharges.
I own ATM Network, an independent ATM company based in Minnesota. For the past 14 years, my company has sold and provided transaction processing for nonbank ATMs; we now have more than 5,000 customers nationwide, including grocery stores, bowling alleys, bars, restaurants, amusement parks, nightclubs, stadiums, retail stores and gas stations.
The case for ATM fees is simple: Without them, most nonbank ATMs wouldn’t exist. ATM owners must buy the machine, maintain it, keep it loaded with cash and paper, provide it with power and a communication link and pay other costs such as insurance and installation. None of this is free. The fees are what make such an investment viable.
This amendment would immediately reduce the number of ATMs available, slash the value of existing investments in ATM equipment, hurt the bottom line of hundreds of thousands of small business owners nationwide and put thousands of entrepreneurs out of business.
The Harkin amendment is promoted as “consumer friendly”, but how do consumers benefit from seeing ATMs disappear from stores, restaurants and gas stations? How does the economy benefit by removing machines that dispense billions of dollars in cash annually — money that drives sales and boosts our economy? How does cutting jobs and hurting small businesses help anyone?
Government intervention in market pricing may be justified when the free market is unable to set fair prices. But in this case the free market is working just fine. ATM surcharges are transparent and easily avoidable, and the sheer number of ATMs means customers always have a choice. They can go down the street to a machine with a lower surcharge, or to an ATM owned by their bank. Or they can skip the ATM altogether and pay with credit cards or checks.
With so many alternatives, an ATM surcharge is a purely voluntary payment for convenience. Anyone who doesn’t want to pay the fee can either use an ATM owned by their bank or get cash the old-fashioned way: by standing in line at a teller window. Most consumers don’t want to do that. They have grown up in a world filled with ATMs, and they expect easy access to ATMs. They appreciate the convenience and choice that nonbank ATMs provide. Because of ATM fees, customers can get cash nearly anywhere, at any time. Without the fees, they won’t.
The Harkin amendment would take us 10 steps backward and be disastrous for small businesses across the country. It will hurt the consumers it purports to help and damage our economy just as we’re pulling out of a deep recession. I strongly urge you to oppose this amendment and avoid harm to hundreds of thousands of hardworking American citizens.

Sincerely,

Phil Rock
Founder and President
ATM Network
10749 Bren Rd. E.
Minnetonka, MN 55343

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Write to your senator
You can email your home-state senators, as well as the heads of the Senate Banking Committee, using these links:

Senator Christopher Dodd, Chairman, Senate Banking Committee

Senator Richard Shelby, Ranking member, Senate Banking Commitee

Senator Tom Harkin, amendment sponsor

Senate Banking Commitee

Find your home-state senators

Tags: ATM, atm fees, ATM machines, Cash machine
Posted in Company news, Industry news | 4 Comments »

ATM industry mobilizes to oppose fee cap

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Part of the financial reform bill making its way through the Senate could have a big effect on ATM owners.

An amendment sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, would cap ATM surcharges at 50 cents. The national average is currently around $2.00.

The amendment is based on three fundamental misunderstanding about ATM fees:

That all ATMs are owned by banks or credit unions;
That the only major cost of ATM ownership is the cost of processing a transaction;
That ATM fees are not being properly set by the marketplace.

Let’s discuss those in order.

1. While banks may have other reasons for installing and maintaining ATMs, most ATMs in this country are nonbank. They’re privately owned ATMs in grocery stores, gas stations, bars, restaurants and other small businesses across the nation. The merchants that own the machines set the surcharge and keep all of it; it’s their compensation for the cost of providing convenient access to cash.

2. Those costs are real. Besides the cost of the machine itself, there’s the cost of supplying it with power and a communication link, the cost of maintenance, and the labor involved in keeping it loaded with cash and paper.

A $2.00 surcharge allows the typical ATM owner to pay off their initial investment in 6-10 months, and then earn a reasonable profit after that. With a 50-cent surcharge, it could take up to *3 years* to pay off the initial investment, and after that the merchant would earn only a small profit — maybe $100 a month for a typical machine.

No business owner is going to invest that much time and money for such a small return. So if a 50-cent cap were imposed, most nonbank ATMs would simply disappear.

3. The market works just fine when it comes to surcharge levels. Government intervention in market pricing might be justified when the free market is unsable to set fair prices. But in this case the free market is working just fine. ATM surcharges are transparent and easily avoidable, and the sheer number of ATMs means customers always have a choice. They can go down the street to a machine with a lower surcharge, or to an ATM owned by their bank. They can skip the ATM altogether and pay with credit cards or checks. Or they can do what they did before ATMs became widespread: stand in line at the teller window.

You may think that saying “ATMs will disappear” is alarmist. It’s not. How do we know? Because we’ve been there before.

Until 1996, ATM surcharges were illegal. The only ATMs available were owned by banks. Their ATM networks were money losers, but were cheaper than paying human tellers. But because each ATM lost money, they weren’t going to install any more ATMs than absolutely necessary.

Then in 1996, Congress legalized ATM surcharges. And the ATM industry was born. The number of ATMs in the country exploded.

The Harkin amendment will take us most of the way back to the pre-surcharge days, costing jobs and hurting the bottom line of hundreds of thousands of small businesses in the process.

That’s why industry groups are campaigning against it. It’s why the moderate Brookings Institution opposes it. Even independent observers like CNN have pointed out the downside.

The amendment comes up for a vote later this week. With luck, logic will prevail.

Tags: ATM, atm fees, ATM machines, Cash machine
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ATM dispenses gold instead of cash

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Okay, it’s more of a vending machine than an ATM, but if you don’t like paper currency, this machine is for you:

Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace Hotel became the first place outside Germany to install “gold to go, the world’s first gold vending machine,” said a statement from Ex Oriente Lux AG, the German company behind the vending machine.

“In addition to one-gram, five-gram and 10-gram bars of gold, the machine also dispenses gold coins,” it added.

Not only does the machine dispense gold, it’s also gold-plated. But that doesn’t mean it’s low-tech: it constantly monitors the gold markets and adjusts its prices accordingly.

But don’t expect to see one on your street corner anytime soon. The Emirates Palace Hotel is not your normal business location:

The Emirates Palace is often used by visiting foreign dignitaries, and its top floor is reserved for the rulers of the UAE federation’s seven emirates, each of whom has his own suite.

High-end, indeed.

The machines were first installed in some German airports last year.

And talk about security:

“The Gold To Go vending machine will fulfill the same safety standard as an ATM,” said Uwe Heusel, owner of WBA Heusel GmbH. His company used armoring made of special steel, Kevlar and various ceramic materials to harden the vending machine against vandalism or even explosive blasts.

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Mastercard raises fees for ATM owners

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

With little warning and no consultation, Mastercard has changed the ATM fee structure for Mastercard-branded cards, as well as its Cirrus card network.

The changes are complicated, but they break down into two basic categories:

1. Mastercard pays an “interchange fee” on every ATM withdrawal involving its Mastercard/Cirrus networks. As of April 1, MasterCard cut those payments by 30 percent.

2. Mastercard charges a fee for any transaction involving its Mastercard and Cirrus networks. As of April 16, Mastercard more than tripled that fee.

Added together, Mastercard is cutting its per-transaction payment by more than 62 percent on most transactions — dealing serious harm to every nonbank company that deploys ATMs. Overall, the move is expected to cost the nonbank ATM industry up to $26 million a year.

Other cards and networks currently are not affected.

BOTTOM LINE
Here’s what it means for ATM owners and operators: As of April 1, Mastercard is taking an additional 28 cents or so from every Mastercard-related transaction processed by a nonbank ATM.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
We will give the Mastercard deduction its own line on our monthly statements, so you can see exactly how much this affects your residual amounts.

We recommend raising your surcharge to cover the Mastercard/Cirrus pass-through. You might consider urging your customers to use any other card, such as Visa, Discover, American Express or regional banking cards.

You can also contact Mastercard/Cirrus directly at 1-800-627-8372.

For further updates, announcements and current industry headlines, check the “News” section on our ATM Network home page.

Tags: ATM, atm fees, ATM machines, Cash machine
Posted in ATM operators, ATM owners, Company news, Finance, Industry news | Comments Off

ATM maker Triton sold for $7.5 million

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

A year after a failed merger with Nautilus Hyosung, ATM manufacturer Triton Systems — maker of the popular Triton RL1600 — has been sold.

Triton Systems of Delaware was recently purchased from the Dover Corp. by a group of private investors for $7.5 million.

Triton Systems president and CEO Daryl Cornell says the new owners have expressed confidence in their ability to continue to grow the company.

“The only real change is the end of the uncertainty surrounding Triton during the protracted sale process,” Cornell said. “We believe that this sale was the best possible outcome for Triton, its customers, its employees and the community.”

The company will maintain a strategic partnership with the publicly held Dover, but does not plan a public stock offering of its own.

Cornell says Triton’s continued partnership with Dover had its advantages. But being a privately held will allow Triton to explore otherwise unavailable opportunities and partnerships.

The company will not seek a public offering, either, Cornell says. Such a move would allow Triton access to equity markets, but would be too cost prohibitive in the end.

In the short term, no major changes are expected, and no executive departures were announced.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs, Cash machine
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Tranax not changing name after all

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Back in February, Tranax announced it was changing it’s name to Hantle USA, to better align its brand and its products with Hantle Systems Co. Ltd., Tranax’s Korea-based parent company.

But on Wednesday, Tranax said there would be no name change after all.

The name change, according to attorneys for Tranax, was never official. In fact, lead attorney Bob Freitas tells ATMmarketplace.com that Tranax is not owned by Hantle Systems at all, and that there is no relationship between Hantle Systems and the company that acquired Tranax in the fall of 2008, Korea-based Eltna Group.

In an e-mailed statement, Freitas says: “Hantle USA is a separate company that is not a subsidiary of Hantle Systems. Hantle Systems sells ATM modules to Hantle USA . Hantle USA currently intends to focus on marketing and sales of ATM equipment, modules and related products for the retail industry. Hantle Systems is an established Korean company with 18 years of history in research and development of ATM modules for the banking and other industries.”

Some significant changes have taken place. On Feb. 1, Hantle USA took over responsibility for selling the company’s retail ATMs, while Tranax is now focused on kiosks, scanners and components. Hantle USA will also handle servicing for existing Tranax ATMs. Eventually all of the company’s ATMs will be rebranded to Hantle, but the transition will probably take a long time.

The head of Tranax’s parent company apologized for the confusion.

“Tranax regrets recent incorrect statements about the company which resulted from miscommunications between an employee and the upper management of the company,” said Won Gee Lee, CEO of Tranax and Eltna, Tranax’ owner, in an issued statement. “We apologize to our customers, the media, and the public who received this incorrect information. In fact, Tranax continues as a business, focusing on ATM machines and other related products, including scanners, self-service terminals and other modules for non-retail industries, including the banking industry.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs
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ATMs: from afterthought to vital link

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

The latest issue of Credit Union Times traces the adoption and spread of ATMs by credit unions, starting in the 1990s, charting the machine’s rise from a novelty to a mainstay of the credit-union industry.

Since 1990, the lowly ATM has moved from being little more than an adjunct to a credit union or bank’s branch structure to being a significant part of customer service strategy and the average retail landscape today, industry executives said.

“In 1990, ATMs were like extensions of bank [or credit union] branches so most ATMs were located at, or close, to branches,” explained Michael Lee, CEO of the ATM Industry Association, an international organization that represents ATM manufacturers and deployers. There were only about 85,000 to 150,000 machines in those days, and they were virtually all tied to bank or credit union branches.

As we’ve noted before, loosening restrictions on ATMs is what drove the explosion in ATM usage:

“The big revolution in the U.S. ATM in this time period was the introduction of surcharging in 1996,” Lee said. The surcharge fee paid by consumers using an ATM not belonging to their bank increased from zero in 1996 to an average of roughly $1.50 in 2003, he added, citing the Federal Reserve. “The fee allowed ATM owners to take ATMs to nonbank areas in the retail sector, closer to where consumers live, work and shop. The fee provided the economic stimulus for the huge growth of the retail ATM.”

And oddly, the explosion of competing retail ATMs helped drive the development of credit union and bank ATM networks. Once people began to see ATMs as a normal part of their financial lives, two things happened: They demanded more and better access to them, and they became more open to using ATMs for a wider range of financial transactions.

Which is why ATMs today do everything from dispensing cash to taking deposits to selling stamps and insurance. 20 years ago, few people would have trusted a machine with such transactions. Today, they don’t think twice about it.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs
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NCR names new CFO

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

ATM manufacturer NCR Corp. has named Robert Fishman as its chief financial officer.

Fishman has been the acting CFO since October, when then-CFO Anthony Massetti resigned to take a job with Avaya Inc., a communications-services provider. He also served as interim CFO from May 2007 through January 2008. He has been with the company since 1993.

“Bob’s proven himself to be an outstanding contributor throughout his career at NCR,” said NCR’s chief executive officer, Bill Nuti. “He will facilitate a seamless transition with our senior leadership team and the finance organization. In addition to a very strong background in finance, Bob brings an invaluable depth of NCR experience to the CFO role. He’s built great teams and helped manage through some of the most complex periods in recent company history.”

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs
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an ATM finder for your Blackberry and iPhone

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Here’s a cool application that could mean more traffic for your ATM:

MasterCard Worldwide has announced the launch of the MasterCard ATM Hunter application for BlackBerry smartphones that allows users to easily locate the nearest ATM no matter where in the world they are.

The application first came out for iPhones, and is now available for Blackberries. It uses uses GPS technology to show users the nearest ATMs. They can sort by things like surcharge and accessibility (wheelchair, drive-up, 24-hour) and then get directions.

If the phone doesn’t have GPS-capabilities, users can consult a database of ATMs to find one near them.

There’s even an online version for those of us playing at home.

The application is free. You can download it from the iPhone App Store or Blackberry’s AppWorld.

Tags: ATM, ATM machine, ATM machines, ATMs
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Nautilus Hyosung America names new CEO

Monday, March 8th, 2010

The U.S. branch of ATM manufacturer Nautilus Hyosung is getting a new CEO and president.

Charles Jung, an executive vice president at Hyosung, replaces Chan Park, who has run the division since 2007. Park will return to Korea to focus on global finance, human resources and procurement for the company.

Jung has a doctorate degree in computer science, and spent 17 years working for IBM in the United States before joining Hyosung.

In his new job he will oversee operations in both North America and South America from the company’s regional headquarters in Texas.

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