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The financial crisis triggered by high default rates in mortgage-backed securities
has brought rampant consolidation among the largest bank owners of ATMs.
In September and October, two owners grew much larger and one bank disappeared
for good and the other is on its way to disappearing.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. purchased Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc.'s assets, including the company's ATM network, for $1.9 billion. WaMu had operated the nation's sixth-largest ATM network in 2007 with 4,962 machines. New York-based Chase operated 9,310 ATMs. Combined, Chase will operate 14,272 ATMs in 23 states, the bank said in a news release. Even with the infusion of machines,
however, Chase remains the second-largest bank operator of ATMs behind Charlotte,
N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. BofA owned 18,531 ATMs in 28 states at the end
of the second quarter on June 30. Chase announced its deal on Sept. 25.
On Oct. 3, much to the surprise of many in the financial-services community, Wells
Fargo & Co. purchased Charlotte, N.C.- based Wachovia Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at $12.2 billion.
The deal was a surprise because on Sept. 29, Citigroup Inc. announced that was
negotiating to purchase Wachovia assets and its ATM network. Citi later dropped its
bid for Wachovia in an agreement orchestrated by Federal Reserve Bank.
As a result, Wells Fargo, which owned 6,950 ATMs, before Wachovia's purchase, now owns 12,227 ATMs. It remains the owner of the nation's third-largest ATM network behind Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The rapid changes come as a shock to Kate Monahan, an analyst with the Boston based
Aite Group. "I have covered ATMs for five years, and I have not seen anything like
this," she says.
