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The financial crisis has helped to thrust ATMs into a leading role for financial institutions to introduce banking services to new customers, according to a report released this week by Mercator Advisory Group Inc., a Maynard, Mass.-based consulting firm. "As millions of bank customers involuntarily find themselves (post merger or post failure) with new banks, the ATM provides the perfect platform for banks to introduce themselves to new customers," writes Elizabeth Rowe, author of the report "ATMs: The Bank Brand Sitting in the Footprint of a Microwave." Rowe, who is group director of Mercator's banking advisory services, was unavailable for comment. In the past few months, the nation's financial crisis caused a major shift in ATM leaders. In September, New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. purchased Washington Mutual Inc. of Seattle, which expanded Chase's ATM network to 14,272 machines in 23 states (CardLine, 9/26). Chase owns the nation's second-largest bank-ATM network behind Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp., which operates 18,531 ATMs in 28 states. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. in October purchased Wachovia Corp., which doubled the size of Wells' ATM network (CardLine, 10/3). The deal gives Wells Fargo a coast-to-coast ATM presence in 39 states. Wells Fargo operates the nation's third-largest bank-ATM network with 12,227 machines.
