Level Four

ADA compliance picks up pace

2011-09-22T13:46:00.001+01:00

I have spoken before about the implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on the ATM but as with any regulatory deadline there is always a certain degree of reluctance; a hope that if you ignore it for long enough it might just go away. The problem is, that rarely happens and in fact leaving it to the last minute just makes the compliance process harder and more pressured than it needs to be.

ADA is no different. The Department of Justice has been vague in some respects and there are certain challenges posed by the finer details of the regulation. However, the reality of the situation is that the 15th March 2012 deadline is now less than six months away.

Those who attended our webinar recently will know that as far as the voice guidance aspect is concerned, we are now able to offer automated testing of this as a natural extension of the BRIDGE:test environment, to greatly ease the laborious process of manual voice guidance testing and to help ensure that ATMs meet the requirements.

The issue of testing voice guidance flows in ATM applications is getting much more prominence now, especially in the US. I read a piece by Jason Kuhn of Payment Alliance International recently, which I felt articulated the need for action in this area particularly very well. He said, “If you don’t have voice guidance you are in a world of hurt. Voice guidance is an absolute requirement.”

Couldn’t have put it any better myself.

Ian Kerr

Watch our webinar on our prototype for ADA compliance testing

2011-09-16T13:53:00.000+01:00

Visa puts its weight behind US EMV

2011-08-17T16:14:00.001+01:00

Last week, Visa announced that it is kicking off three new initiatives to accelerate the adoption of EMV and NFC technology in the US. Visa is the largest card scheme in the US, putting it in a strong position to finally bring about EMV migration in one of the last Western countries to still be relying on magstripe cards.

This is welcome news to security-conscious US consumers and also to the payment card industry as a whole – on this forum I have long blogged about the benefits of EMV. Recent discussions have pointed to a ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ attitude to EMV migration in the US and it appears we are closer now to the tipping point when the initiative will start.

Interestingly, however, Visa has chosen to focus on the NFC mobile payment capability that a migration to chip cards will enable. While the rest of the world migrated to EMV in a move that is largely driven by security, Visa’s new announcement indicates that the rise in mobile payments is the catalyst that has finally driven it to get behind the initiative in the US.

Regardless of its motivations, there is still a great deal of work to be done to ensure that all payment channels are ready to support EMV. We created a best practice guide to EMV migration, following our support of many global projects to prepare the ATM channel for EMV. Our strongest advice is that with any change, there is a need to fully test the new environment end to end.

There are significantly more types of card conditions and transaction permutations with EMV cards, rather than with magnetic stripe cards, which require the ATM application and host system to process a much wider range of scenarios.

As a result, EMV compliant ATMs are about ten times more labour intensive to test than traditional ATMs. To ensure that the ATM continues to deliver a high level of customer service and satisfaction during this time of EMV migration in the US, financial institutions must consider their ATM testing strategies.

Ian Kerr

Global counterfeit card ring is foiled by Europol and US law enforcement agencies

2011-07-18T13:41:00.001+01:00

Finextra has reported yet another story highlighting the increasing perception of financial criminals that the US is a weak link in the financial chain.

Last week, Europol and the US collaborated to make arrests in Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Poland and Italy. Police rounded up more than 60 individuals who were involved in an international card skimming enterprise.

The group skimmed cards in the EU and then used them in countries that are not EMV compliant, including the US, to circumvent the additional layer of security that Chip and PIN affords. According to the article, the arrests also identify wider links to criminal cells in Kenya, South Africa and the USA.

This is a commonly-used tactic by card fraud rings and highlights that the US market is still open to a significant vulnerability. I have written a lot about the benefits of EMV migration and I also recently participated in an ATMIA webinar on the topic.

Clearly, the cost of EMV implementation is not small for the US, but the fact remains that card fraud is increasingly being squeezed to those areas that are easiest to target and the US is a prime target, not least because of the Mexico/Canada sandwich of compliance that now exists.
According to Digital Transactions, a report out this week from the first FI in the US to migrate to EMV, the United Nations Federal Credit Union, says it has experienced a 153% increase in card applications in the first year of EMV.

With the cost of fraud to the business increasing, so too does the reputation damage that security issues bring. Add to this the growing business case from organisations such as the United Nations Federal Credit Union, and also those banks in countries such as Canada and the UK, and we are surely closer than ever to widespread EMV migration in the US?

Ian Kerr

Testing voice guidance capability to comply with ADA is about to get a whole lot easier

2011-07-11T11:53:00.000+01:00

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a final ruling on new accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which need to be adhered to by March 15th 2012. The Final Rule imposes new standards around ATM accessibility, including requirements on voice guidance, height and reach, layout and touch of keypad, screen visibility and Braille instructions.

To meet the 2012 deadline, updates to ATM terminals and software are likely to be required as part of the overall compliance plan. As with any change to ATM functionality, it’s important to remember the ‘change anything, test everything’ rule.

At the moment, testing voice guidance functionality on an ATM is a laborious process. It involves someone physically sitting at the machine with headphones on and testing that every single voice command matches the screen display. Because this is such a time intensive and manual process, it’s something which, up until now, banks have probably not put as much focus on as they should. But, as voice guidance becomes a requirement and all U.S. machines carry the functionality, testing needs to be carried out as part of the process, just as is the case with any update.

Left un-tested, errors and glitches are more likely to occur further down the line and these are not only costly to repair but when a customer encounters the error or an out of service ATM they have implications on the reputation of the bank or ATM owner in question.

I was recently in the US meeting with customers, prospects and partners and told them about some exciting developments in terms of a voice guidance testing capability being added to Level Four’s Regression Test Manager. These are currently in R&D stage, but will make the job of complying with this final ruling on ADA a whole lot simpler.

Ian Kerr

Happy Birthday to the ATM!

2011-06-27T10:56:00.004+01:00

On this day in 1967, the world’s first electronic ATM was installed by Barclays Bank in Enfield, North London.

A lot has happened in the last 44 years in the ATM world – from improvements in speed and efficiency, through to finger vein and biometric security and new functionalities such as mobile phone top up, bill payment and now charitable donations. But what will the ATM look like in another 44 years?

We’re already seeing forward thinking banks and ATM deployers considering greater integration with other banking channels, such as online and mobile, so we can definitely expect further developments in this area. A far more personal and bespoke service at the ATM is also something we’ll become increasingly used to. And perhaps as the e-money society evolves, the machines will become a one-stop shop for all banking needs and serve as the access point for a much wider range of non-banking, self-service functions too.

Here’s to the next 44 years!

Ian Kerr

Designers see the future of ATM security

2011-06-21T13:34:00.001+01:00

It’s interesting to see a fresh perspective on bank security trends. St Martin’s College of Art in London has created an ATM crime exhibition and it features some quirky and future-looking ATM security technologies such as sound sensors, laser-illuminated privacy zones, and low tech every-direction mirrors!

According to the blog about the exhibition, the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) and NCR worked with the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU), Royal Bank of Scotland and LINK on a design brief for BA (Hons) Product Design students. The challenge set was to come up with new and cost-effective solutions to tackle ATM crime.

Although on the surface, some of the ideas seem a little futuristic, such as the warning sensors that capitalise on the growing popularity of gaming console movement technology, there are indeed some strong ATM innovations presented in this exhibition.

Fundamental to ATM security is the common sense steps that individuals can take at the cash machine to protect their PIN and therefore it is pleasing to see that many of the suggestions are designed to encourage the consumer to take more care.

For the banks, those innovations that require few changes to the screen flow and ATM user interface will be the most appealing as they will minimise the investment required. The other consideration is the age old balance between security and the user experience. Too many passwords and PINs and consumers become frustrated with the process. In this respect, the migration to EMV, which in participating countries has brought about a significant reduction in ATM fraud, has been a real success in advancing security whilst having no impact on the customer experience.

As a general observation all of this attention is a further confirmation that the ATM is the channel of choice for most people accessing a bank’s services. The ATM has a very bright and very much more secure future ahead.

Ian Kerr

Mobile cheque deposit – will it make a difference?

2011-06-13T10:00:00.002+01:00

Around a quarter of Americans want to be able to use their mobile phones to deposit cheques, according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research. As a Brit, there’s a certain irony to this combination of investing in the new to give a crutch to the old, as we have a proposed end date for cheques over here in 2018. Clearly cheque volumes are still significantly higher in the US and they are not experiencing the same rate of decline as in the UK, making channel integration a more interesting proposition.

In a recent survey that we conducted with ATM professionals, channel integration and enhancing ATM functionality were cited as the two biggest priorities at the ATM, demonstrating the value that one of the oldest self service banking channels can still deliver to retail banking. We are a long way from the demise of the branch and the ATM so it is promising to see that banks are seeking ways to use their existing infrastructure to improve overall customer service delivery and generate new revenue opportunities through innovation.

This is manifesting itself in lots of ways, from the increasing number of branches opting to install self service terminals that go beyond cash dispensing, through to functionality such as mobile phone top up and charity donations at the ATM.

Customers will only move to more self-service banking if the experience is simple and fast, and they have confidence in its security. For ATM and self-service channel managers, added functionality and more sophisticated hardware and software bring a greater pressure to fully test the ATM on a regular basis. As more services are added, there are more scenarios and screens that must be displayed and a fault on one of these or a network issue that causes downtime could turn a happy customer into a disgruntled one.

On a par with the reputation cost, banks that fail to adequately prepare their self-service channels for future uptake will discourage consumers from migrating away from teller services and therefore incur a bottom line impact too – in an environment where every opportunity to increase revenue or decrease costs counts for retail banking this would be a far from desirable position.

Ian Kerr

Is it all over for magstripe cards?

2011-06-06T10:00:00.000+01:00

The Seventh Progress Report published by the European Central Bank (ECB) / Eurosystem calls for all newly issued cards in the SEPA region to be issued as ‘chip only’ cards from 2012. At the moment, merchants in EMV-compliant countries are obviously set up to process transactions via Chip and PIN but they can still fall back to magstripe transactions if they wish.

Data from EMVCo indicates that in Europe, 74% of cards and 89% of terminals are EMV compliant so is the ECB proposal going to lock out the other 26% of Europeans (and the rest of the non-EMV world) from making a card payment or ATM withdrawal in the Eurozone?

Well in short, no. The ECB also states that the industry will have to be prepared to offer acceptance of magnetic stripe cards upon request, as long as there are still regions outside SEPA which have not fully migrated to EMV.

There is really little case for a proposal to limit magstripe issuance while the world is still some way from full EMV compliance. The banking industry is all too aware that consumers care about security but this is always acutely linked with convenience. If a cardholder from the SEPA region travels to another part of the world and cannot pay because their Chip-only card doesn’t work in the magstripe-only ATM, they won’t just brush it off and thank their bank for keeping their money safe – they will be really annoyed about the failed transaction!

There are so many different permutations here, from a SEPA card in a SEPA country that is EMV compliant, one that is not, one that is but the chip is damaged, a SEPA card being used in the States, an American card being used in the SEPA region...the list is endless. What will make a big difference will be our American cousins finally committing to an EMV migration programme then we can move towards a non-magstripe world of higher security.

In the meantime, what this means for ATMs and PoS network managers is a need to run extensive testing to trial all of the permissible scenarios. This will significantly reduce ATM and PoS faults (and downtime) from occurring due to the vast array of possible outcomes, while we remain in this limbo status when it comes to EMV.

Ian Kerr

Top tips to innovation at the ATM

2011-05-25T18:35:00.004+01:00

The financial crisis has brought about change for more or less every aspect of the retail banking landscape and the ATM channel is no exception.

Despite recent interest in new channels such as online and mobile, ATMs are still one of the most used touch points between a bank and its customers and for now, cash is still very much king.

In our 2011 survey, results showed that the business case for the ATM remains clear but banks need to adopt innovative strategies to up their offering, maximise revenue from this channel and enhance customer service. In the survey, ‘channel integration’ and ‘offering new services’ are the priorities for ATM deployers in the coming twelve months.

But how can ATM innovation be achieved? And what does this technologically innovative and integrated ATM environment look like? To help banks overcome these challenges, Level Four has identified five top tips on how to innovate at the ATM.

To download the free Top Tips to ATM Innovation, please click here.

Level Four’s Top Tips cover the below areas:

• Integrate the ATM with the emerging channels
• Tailor the ATM to meet the needs of the individual customer
• Up the functionality
• Increase security
• Improve accessibility

Cash is king?

2011-04-28T09:15:00.003+01:00

In 2009, recession-hit Americans cut back on their use of plastic cards and returned to cash, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. What’s more, fewer Americans actually held debit cards in 2009, (77% compared to 80.2% the previous year) and a similar decline was witnessed for credit cards.

It’s thought that weaker economic conditions encouraged a shift away from credit card payments and towards cash because it can help cut costs and improve budgeting. This is reminiscent of some market research commissioned by Level Four in the UK at Christmas in 2009 that also indicated shoppers were more comfortable using cash for purchases at a time when budgets were tightening.

Whether the 2009 statistics further reflect consumers responding to biting economic conditions or a reversal in a long-term trend towards electronic payments, it’s too early to say. Whatever the case however, the figures demonstrate why banks should continue to invest in their ATM networks as an effective and important customer service tool and touch point.

At the most basic level, banks need to prevent ATM downtime and maintain the IT infrastructure. However, at the same time, ATM providers should be looking to develop the technological capability of the channel in order to offer customers a greater number of services and to a higher standard. According to our recent global survey, 63 per cent of respondents highlighted that the biggest change to their ATM priorities has been to increase efforts in bringing new services to market via the ATM and integrating the ATM with other channels. Such innovations should further support those consumers keen to use cash over plastic. Perhaps cash will remain king after all...?

Ian Kerr

Stopping fraudsters in their tracks – Europe making headway against card skimming

2011-04-20T18:11:00.000+01:00

The European ATM Security Team (EAST) reported last week that fraud is in overall decline at European ATMs – good news for the industry and testament to the investment that has been made in the migration to EMV to date. In the UK, there is also a growing consumer awareness of skimming and the need to protect your PIN at ATM and PoS terminals which has no doubt also had an impact on the reduction in fraud losses.

According to the article on ATMmarketplace, last year total losses reached €268 million (U.S. $388 million), down €44 million compared to 2009. Lachlan Gunn, coordinator of EAST, confirmed that this is the second consecutive year that the figure has dropped.

However, EAST is quick to point out that these statistics are an average for of Europe as a whole. In fact, seven of the 22 countries that are included in the figures experienced higher losses as a result of skimming in 2010 compared to 2009. The message is – do not be complacent.

The statistics will also serve as another round of ammunition for those campaigning in the US market to introduce EMV. Not only does it have its own local fraud to contend with but as more global markets migrate to EMV, criminals attacking the vulnerabilities of the magstripe card are forced to move to those countries, like the US, that present a softer target.

Wells Fargo announced late last week that it would be the first US bank to conduct a pilot to issue chip cards to its frequent traveller customers. Does this signal the start of a wave to adopt the global payment card standard?

Ian Kerr

ATMIA webinar – is the US ready to sign up to EMV?

2011-04-12T17:45:00.001+01:00

We are excited to support ATMIA and participate in an upcoming webinar on EMV migration, with a focus on the US market. Please register below to join the ATMIA webinar on 14 April 2011.

I’ll be part of a panel of EMV migration experts and I’ll talk about the UK experience and how the US market can learn from previous countries’ implementations.

We also be discussing the issue of whether Canada and Mexico’s migration to EMV will be the tipping point that will push the US market towards embracing Chip and PIN technology, the time-frames being considered and how feasible it is for a market of over 401,000 ATMs to even consider such a conversion.

Date: 14 April 2011

Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM CDT / 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM BST

Length: 60 minutes

To join the webinar, Click Here

I hope that you can join us.

Ian Kerr

Level Four ATM survey reveals ‘new services’ and ‘integration’ are the top priorities for the ATM channel

2011-03-28T12:11:00.000+01:00

At the end of last week, we launched the results of our global ATM survey. Whereas last year the main focus was on solving downtime issues, priorities this year the have shifted to introducing new services and integrating the ATM with other channels. Full details of the results of the survey can be found here, or on the ATMIA website, here. Ian Kerr

Interchange and fees – lessons from Australia

2011-03-14T11:47:00.001Z

The Australian Institute has recently released a report analysing the success of ATM reforms in Australia, comparing the impact on consumers and financial services providers to date. The overriding goal of the reforms, laid out by the Reserve Bank of Australia in 2008, was to increase pricing transparency – both to give consumers a better view on the charges they pay and also to encourage greater competition in the industry. In particular, the abolition of bilateral interchange fees paid by banks and other financial institutions to ATM owners for the provision of ATM services was designed to have a positive impact on the overall customer experience.

While the reforms are yet to invoke a reduction in fees charged, they have affected ATM revenues for financial services providers. Consumers’ response to the increased transparency is to change their behaviour and actively avoid fees. In the year following the 2009 reforms, the use of third-party ATMs fell 18 per cent, delivering consumers savings of some $120 million.

What this shows is the consumer dissatisfaction that fees have created, a sentiment that is affirmed in the media’s attitude towards ATM charging. For banks to continue to profit from this revenue stream in the long term, they cannot lose sight of the customer experience and they must ensure that the service they are delivering at the ATM is worth paying for.

There is a lot of change in the Australian banking market currently, with banks looking to invest to update legacy ATM systems and introduce new technology especially with EMV around the corner. This surely paves the way to offer better services and functionality at the ATM and therefore justify the fee to use it? Indeed, as opportunities to integrate the ATM with other channels, such as the mobile, continue to emerge, those banks that want to stay one step ahead will use the ATM to offer market-leading services to their customers. This in turn will have the effect of attracting more ‘foreign’ customers too. For example, if consumers know that they can top up their mobile payment device at a Commonwealth Bank ATM, then even non-Commonwealth customers will gravitate towards its services. New functionality has the ability to safeguard the future revenues that the ATM can create for retail banks and ATM deployers, as long as they take advantage of it.

Ian Kerr

Lessons learnt in Woking

2011-03-07T18:19:00.001Z

Dave Birch posted an interesting blog on ATMs recently, which was sparked by a spate of ATM attacks in his local area. It’s Woking, in case you were wondering, not The Bronx or downtown Johannesburg.

Dave makes some interesting points though and the basic premise of his argument is that the ATM channel is outdated and either needs to shape up or ship out. He calls for a re-think of the card and 4 digit PIN system and says that if we can’t improve security then perhaps it’s time to get rid of the ATM all together.

The problem with this, however, is one that Dave himself alludes to later in his post. We are still a long way from being able to leave home without our wallets. Dave mentions his own town of Woking as one such ‘backward’ and ‘underdeveloped’ part of the world in which retailers do not offer contactless terminals, but far from being the exception, Woking is in fact the rule.

You’ve probably seen the stats from Ovum on increasing numbers of banknotes in the Eurozone and as I’ve also mentioned in a previous post, cash still accounts for around 78 per cent of retail payments in Europe and America. So I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – we’re not about to see the extinction of the ATM, far from it.

In fact, our experience is that banks are still making significant investments in the ATM channel, forcing them to consider best practice testing and monitoring technologies to protect the reliability of the ATM. As Dave states, the focus needs to be on making ATMs more secure and reliable. The future of the channel also relies on channel integration with new innovations like mobile payments.

Dave mentions the potential flaws in adding cameras to ATMs, but there are other options and success is already being achieved with ideas such as finger vein security at ATMs in Brazil. Combine technologies such as this with more sophisticated software, increased functionality and greater integration with mobile and you do have a very impressive ATM offering.

At the end of the day we’re all after the same things - safety, security, functionality and convenience. That’s why we’re seeing increasing investment in this area. As the most used contact point between a customer and a bank, the importance of getting things right in this channel is no longer something just to be aimed for, it’s imperative.

Ian Kerr

Chip and PIN – is the industry getting real value?

2011-03-02T10:31:00.002Z

February saw the fifth anniversary of the UK's successful migration to Chip and PIN. There are now more than 140 million Chip and PIN cards in issue in the UK and more than 1 million Chip and PIN terminals in the UK, according to the UK Cards Association.

The UK may have been one of the first but much of Western Europe is now EMV compliant, or at least heading that way. The UK Cards Association has released this useful map that demonstrates the progress of other European countries to date.

Q3 2010 Data from the European Payments Council

But what have we learned? Well, in terms of the actual process of migration from magstripe to EMV, there are many widely adopted best practice approaches that are proven to help banks, card schemes and merchants to make migration easier. For example, at Level Four we have written a guide to EMV roll out that assesses the impact on the ATM channel. Countries embarking on migration now (such as Australia) can benefit from the UK, Canada, and France’s experiences. What’s more, the business case in terms of fraud reduction is now undoubtedly proven. Following the roll out of EMV in the UK in 2004, card fraud reduced by 25 per cent within the first two years. It’s now also surely only a matter of time before the US gets on board. Ultimately, the world is progressing towards a world without magstripe.

However, five years on from UK roll out and widespread European compliance with the EMV standard, in many cases we are still yet to see the full functionality of Chip and PIN being exploited.

The added information that the Chip can store has the potential to greatly enhance the customer experience, particularly at the ATM. From targeted marketing through to a fully personalised ATM screen that matches your behaviour, few banks have gone beyond the security benefits of EMV and delivered functionality that uses the power of the Chip.

So although this update from the UK Cards Association on the anniversary of the UK EMV migration is good news for tackling fraud and improving transaction security, five years on and there are still ways to get more value from Chip and PIN. With such a huge investment in EMV, isn’t it now time for banks to consider the benefits of new applications that take more advantage of the capability to enhance the functionality at the ATM?

Ian Kerr

You think the ATM channel is about to be displaced by a cashless society and mobile banking? Look away now…

2011-02-09T16:26:00.002Z

Those of us in the ATM space are quite often asked where we stand in an industry increasingly talking about ‘e-‘this or ‘m-‘that. It’s a shame that more such sceptics weren’t listening to Flora Hamilton’s presentation at Wincor World recently, where the European Head of ATMIA presented a perspective on the ATM of the future. So, anyone that thinks the ATM channel is about to be displaced by mobile payments, e-commerce and a cashless society, look away now…

The number of banknotes in the Eurozone is growing by about nine per cent per year. Cash still accounts for around 78 per cent of retail payments in Europe and in America, ‘even if cash usage was to decline by 17 per cent every five years, the use of cash still wouldn’t fall below $1billion before the year 2205.’ So, myth number one dispelled; cash isn’t going anywhere!

Not content to only show how much we still rely on ATMs for cash withdrawals, Flora went on to illustrate just how well the ATM channel can support other banking and payment technologies such as NFC and mobile.

Firstly the case of La Caixa in Spain, which recently launched its first pilot of contactless at ATMs. La Caixa hopes to involve 5,000 contactless cards, 1,000 mobile phones and achieve 8,000 transactions by offering customers the choice of contactless and PIN or traditional card and PIN to drive the transaction. With the next iPhone set to include ‘wave and pay’ and the rest of the telecoms community set to follow suit, this is an interesting option.

Through Dynamic Currency Conversion and the introduction of solar powered ATMs, Flora then highlighted the use of ATMs for international remittances. In Egypt, for example, where 75 per cent of the population are ‘unbanked’, the Arab African International Bank is offering non-customers services via its ATM network including ‘person-to-person’ transfers. In the same way, Kenya’s successful mobile phone payments service, M-Pesa, now includes cash withdrawals at ATMs.

Innovations such as these, along with other commercial initiatives including lottery ticket dispensing and highly targeted third party advertising, explain in part why we are seeing so many banks investing in the channel at the moment and either renewing outdated infrastructure or investing in technology that enables increased functionality and improved customer service.

So thank you to Flora and congratulations to Wincor World on a great event. The key to the ATM of the future is not about competing with mobile payments or a move towards a cashless society; it’s about working together, utilising a channel proven for more than 40 years, to enable greater access to these new technologies.

Ian Kerr

Survey on ATM trends

2011-02-02T17:49:00.002Z

Hi all, we’re conducting a short survey to get an idea of trends in the ATM industry and what we can expect to see in the next 12 months. If you have a minute, please click here to answer our 6 short, multiple choice questions.

We’ll of course share the results with you, which should be of interest to all of us in the industry.

Ian Kerr

Level Four becomes ATMIA Global Board member

2011-01-24T17:27:00.001Z

Good news today - Level Four has become a Global Member of the ATMIA Board. Extending our longstanding relationship with the organisation means that we’ll be taking an active role in shaping its course of action. We’ll be supporting ATMIA in Europe, Asia Pacific and the United States and look forward to working with the global ATMIA team to share expertise and industry information that supports the successes of the whole ATM sector.

Charitable donations at an ATM…. It’s a nice idea in theory

2011-01-12T08:07:00.001Z

I’m all for making it easier for people to do their bit for charity, so in theory the government’s idea of enabling charitable donations to be made when withdrawing cash at an ATM is a good one. The idea comes as part of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ initiative and follows the lead of Colombia, which has a system of ATM giving that allows customers to make a donation every time they withdraw money.

As well as having obvious benefits in a bid to promote a ‘culture of generosity’ this initiative puts the message across to customers using their most accessed touchpoint to the bank. However, in the government’s ‘giving’ green paper in which this concept was announced, it was clear that the idea is still in the early stages: ‘We want banks and ATM providers to let us know how we might make this happen in the UK and whether there are ways we can facilitate this.’ And quite right too, as while this is indeed a nice idea and seems simple on paper, it could be a bit of a functionality headache unless banks have the right technical architecture and development and testing structure in place.

Put simply, increasing functionality at an ATM means making additions to the transaction set and customer screenflows and these additions can be onerous to test alongside the ‘business as usual’ processes.

With one manual test taking anywhere from five minutes to an hour to perform, for those looking to maximise the potential of the channel by pursuing ideas such as this, it quickly becomes apparent why automated rather than manual testing is a must have for today’s banks and ATM deployers.

Ian Kerr

Happy New Year All!

2011-01-06T17:08:00.001Z

The UK may already be reaping the benefits of having chip as opposed to mag stripe cards, but there are still many countries who have yet to migrate to EMV. As a way to combat debit and credit card skimming in Germany, for example, the German federal police agency has recently announced it wants to introduce a dual chip and magnetic strip system. Whatever system each country chooses, there will of course be implications for the ATM channel. If you’ve got a couple of minutes, have a look at a recent article of ours on a new ATM forum, Automated Teller Machine Business Club, in which we highlight the challenges facing financial institutions in the migration to EMV and the critical role of testing at the ATM.

Ian Kerr

All change at the US ATM

2010-12-14T16:14:00.003Z

The ATM is all too often viewed as a staid channel. However, in recent times, it’s fair to say that the US ATM market has been undergoing a technical revolution. The move from OS/2 to Windows, the implementation of multi vendor software and an increasing number of functional enhancements, especially around cash and cheque deposit processing, are changing ATMs for good.

A peak in mergers and acquisitions, some forced by the recent financial crisis, is also leading to switch upgrades and terminal software migrations. What’s more, as EMV migration in the States looks more like a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’, we can expect even greater change afoot and further challenges to contend with.

Having visited numerous banks in the US over the last few months, it has been interesting to note the characteristics of the organisations that seem to be coping best in this state of flux.

Firstly, and crucially, these financial institutions recognise the need to invest in test automation. But why is this so important? Well, test automation lowers the costs associated with historically lengthy manual processes and reduces the time to market in implementing new functionality where manual testing has traditionally been the bottleneck. Developing automated test case coverage also goes far beyond what could ever be achieved manually especially when the combination of advanced applications and complex devices generates far greater opportunities for costly failure. Test automation also allows the joining up of software development and QA through access to a common suite of automated test cases.

Secondly, the savvy banks are also characterised by investing in technical components such as host simulators and a data strategy that supports an end to end testing approach. Typically, we also see integration with enterprise wide test information repositories to integrate ATM specifics with an overall QA approach.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the leading practitioners take a different approach organisationally. Senior management appreciates that test automation investment is not a 'quick fix' but a philosophy that offers real and repeatable long term financial and organisational benefits. It requires bravery and a real belief in innovation and continuous process improvement. Only this type of approach can challenge current pressures on rapid ROI to build the right solution which supports real differentiation and customer service.

As the challenges mount up in the evolving US ATM market, we believe that the leading practitioners that are taking a long term view and investment approach will be the ones to reap the full benefits of change at the ATM.

Wendy Rusk, President, Level Four Americas

The EMV Tipping Point

2010-12-08T17:55:00.003Z

The latest figures from the Australian Payments Clearing Association hold no surprises for the seasoned EMV advocate. As we’ve seen with other EMV-compliant countries, such as the UK and Canada, the roll out of chip technology has significantly reduced the number of skimming attacks.

While it is the reduction in card-present fraud that makes the headlines in terms of EMV adoption, there are also a number of other important benefits that can sometimes be overlooked. Namely, EMV is encouraging a much-needed technology refresh in the ATM landscape of many countries. This new technology is improving service levels and reliability and allowing banks to roll out cutting edge ATM services as well as greater personalisation for customers. As banks look to build better relationships with their customers, these factors should not be underestimated. In fact, they could act as the tipping point for encouraging those countries where fraud is not seen as a big issue, such as the US and parts of the Middle East, to finally make the move to EMV.

Issa Keshek

Rethinking the Cash Machine

2010-12-01T14:47:00.001Z

Earlier this month, NCR was talking about how they plan to rethink the cash machine.
By reconsidering everything from the console's shape to the interface's style and function, "we can create machines that actually make banking cool," says Bob Tramontano, a VP at NCR, the world's largest manufacturer of ATMs.

Meanwhile, the design innovation giant, IDEO, has embarked on a two-year endeavour to ‘humanise’ ATMs for the Spanish banking group BBVA. Instead of a physical keypad, there will be a single, 19-inch touch-screen that lets you do more than your standard ATM would, without getting too complex.

Think of it as an iPhone for the banking industry.

Finally, the ATM channel is getting the overhaul it deserves. As more and more customers move online, cash machines need to at least match the Web experience to stay current.

Of course, as the ATM becomes more innovative and broad in terms of the services it offers, it also becomes more complicated to support. Ensuring ATM uptime and avoiding highly public downtime will be a key part of making these next-generation ATMs a success. Manual testing is fast becoming untenable and so automated testing will increasingly become the norm.

The ATM has come a long way in the last 40 years or so since the introduction of the first cash dispenser machine by Barclays Bank in 1967. This self-service channel is now critical for banks as they look to reduce costs and drive customer service. With innovations taking place in the design, look and feel of the ATM, combined with other technology refreshes in host systems plus innovation in card products, banks are today in the strongest position to fully realise the potential of the ATM channel.

Ian Kerr