Investing in automated teller machine networks will be at the bottom of bankers' priority lists for the next two years, according to a survey from Aite Group LLC.
Purchases of new ATMs and ATM software came in last among 20 categories of technology investments, including security, online banking and bill payment, mobile banking, fraud management, and branch remote deposit capture, said Kate Monahan, an Aite analyst and the author of the September report.
Chief information officers ranked information security as their top budget priority, and Monahan said technology executives are focused this year primarily on making their banks' services more secure.
"This does not look good for the ATM channel," Monahan said. She suggested that ATM vendors that want to increase sales could offer products that emphasize security.
Aite research has found that CIOs typically have more influence over their company's IT spending decisions than business-line executives.
Aite's online survey of 80 CIOs at U.S. banks of various sizes and credit unions and Canadian financial companies was conducted in July and August.
Aite did not inquire about the size of participants' information technology budgets or the percentage of their budgets allocated to each category.
