Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, a $3 billion-asset institution based in Boston, is nearly finished installing automated teller machines in 42 stores owned by Shaw's Supermarkets Inc.
Thirty of the machines are replacement for terminals from BayBanks Corp., which is New England's biggest player in ATMs. Twelve machines will be new installations.
Shaw's decided to terminate its relationship with BayBanks when the bank declined to install ATMs at some stores.
The installations are part of a movement by medium-size banks to increase ATMs installed away from branches.
According to a survey from Speer & Associates, banks with between 51 and 100 ATMs increased their percentage of off-premises terminals to 36% in 1993 from 21% in 1992. Citizens has about 100 ATMs.
Off-premises ATMs, while more expensive to support than branch-based terminals, are usually effective at attracting interchange transactions, which occur when a cardholder uses an ATM not owned by the institution that issued his or her card.
These transactions are more profitable for banks than transactions in which a customer uses an ATM owned by the bank that issued the card.
