NetBank Inc. has sold its automated teller machine and merchant servicing business.
The Alpharetta, Ga., online banking company said Tuesday that PAI ATM Services LLC, a unit of Payment Alliance International Inc. of Louisville, paid $18 million for the servicing contracts on more than 8,500 machines, as well as the ATMs owned by NetBank.
NetBank said last year that it was contemplating selling the business as part of a major reorganization that included selling off or closing several units.
"We mentioned several months ago our intention to sell this operation as part of our larger corporate reorganization effort," Steven F. Herbert, NetBank's chief executive, said in a press release. "The operation was well managed and had real value, but it simply did not fit in with our core banking and mortgage focus."
As of November, NetBank owned just 5% of the ATMs it serviced; PAI will rebrand those machines over the next 18 months. During that time NetBank will waive any surcharges for its customers who use those ATMs.
NetBank said it would record an impairment of $2 million on the sale, because the value of the business exceeded the price.
In November, NetBank shuttered its Financial Technologies Inc., and sold some of the assets of its aircraft, recreational vehicle, and boat lending operation. In the fourth quarter NetBank transferred the employees of its nonconforming mortgage business to Lime Financial Services of Lake Oswego, Ore., and sold the servicing rights on $8.5 billion of mortgages, or about 70% of its portfolio.
