Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are getting ready to add image capability to hundreds of their automated teller machines.
Wells plans by yearend to add imaging systems to 200 existing machines and replace 200 others with new ones that have the technology. All of them will be in the Bay Area, though none will be in San Francisco, Wells' hometown.
Wells is "probably the first to be embarking on anything of this kind of scale," said Jonathan Velline, its senior vice president for ATM banking.
Not to be outdone, Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess said Friday that B of A expects to have 1,500 image-enabled ATMs nationwide by yearend, though there has been no official announcement. Wells announced its plan last week.
Wells and B of A have been testing image-ATMs for some time. Wells began in 2002 and now has 60 of the machines in the Bay Area; Bank of America began with four machines in its hometown of Charlotte in 2003 and now has 63, all in the Carolinas.
Gwenn Bezard, a research director at Aite Group LLC of Boston, said the Wells and Bank of America moves indicate that the technology is mature and reliable and that Wells and B of A consider it "a competitive differentiator." If these big names are using it, "you could expect to see other large banks deploying that capability as well," he said.
Other major banks have not announced plans of this size, though the convenience store company 7-Eleven Inc. began installing image technology in its advanced Vcom ATM kiosks earlier this year.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been testing about 20 image-ATMs in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio for two years, but has not announced a larger rollout.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc.'s customers have been able to deposit checks at ATMs without an envelope since 1992, and can do so at about 400 machines today. However, PNC does not convert those checks to electronic images. Jim Walker, a PNC spokesman, said the company plans to roll out check conversion technology over the next 18 months.
Wachovia Corp., Washington Mutual Inc., and U.S. Bancorp, which are also among the top 10 ATM operators, didn't return calls.
Adding image systems to ATMs offers several advantages. Customers can deposit checks without using envelopes, which can cut down on fraud because people cannot deposit empty envelopes.
And because the images can be transmitted to the bank's item processing systems immediately, they clear faster.
Wells Fargo is using ATMs from Wincor Nixdorf Inc. of Germany, though it also tested machines from NCR Corp. and Diebold Inc.
Ms. Riess would not name the vendor of Bank of America's image-ATMs, though B of A uses nonimage machines from Diebold and NCR.
Wells Fargo tested image-ATMs that could only accept a single check, but customers complained that depositing checks one at a time was tedious, Mr. Velline said.
"About 10% of our customers are depositing three or more items," he said. "Once you get to three items your satisfaction levels start going down."
Using image systems also means customers can make deposits later in the day that will be credited the next day, Mr. Velline said - at 7 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. for deposits at ATMs without image technology.
Wells Fargo operates 6,500 ATMs in 23 states, and Mr. Velline said it will probably install image systems nationwide over the nest two to four years.
Mr. Velline said 98% Wells' customers have said that making envelope-free deposits was easy, and that "over time more and more customers who have traditionally used tellers will actually find this ATM to give them the same or even better level of service than they're getting today from a teller."
