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Envelope-free ATMs increase bank deposits at the machines, which is bringing smiles to financial institutions, contends a top executive at NCR Corp., which has sold 10,000 of the machines to U.S. Financial institutions since 1998. Depending on the ATM and its location, deposits at envelope-free ATMs now account to 10% to 15% of overall transactions compared with 7% to 10% five years earlier, with machines requiring envelopes for deposits, says Brian Pilla, NCR director of Financial Marketing for North America. While piloting NCR's intelligent-deposit ATMs, deposits increased by as much 50% at JPMorgan Chase & Co, says Tom Kelly, a Chase spokesperson. Consumers can deposit banknotes or checks directly into an ATM without placing them into a deposit envelope. Intelligent-deposit ATMs provide images of the banknotes and checks on ATM monitors. Banks want to increase ATM deposits because it enables tellers to handle more-complicated financial transactions and it gives the institutions access to inexpensive funds they can loan overnight to generate interest revenue, say industry officials.
