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The nation's three largest banks provided ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. with one of its few bright spots by continuing to deploy "intelligent" envelope-free deposit ATMs, Tom Swidarski, Diebold president and CEO, told analysts today during a fourth-quarter conference call. "The big three banks–Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., "are aggressively deploying intelligent-deposit ATMs, with Bank of America being the furthest along," Swidarski says. ATM rollouts in Brazil also provided North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold with some good news for the quarter. However, although some credit unions and small banks are moving ahead with deployment of envelope-free ATMs, regional banks are not spending. "There are some small pilots, but otherwise they are not engaged," Swidarski said. "The executives are under a lot of stress because of the economy. Demand in regional accounts continued to weaken during the quarter." Business is not necessarily bad for regional banks, says Gil Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. "They are holding onto their purse strings because they are fearful about the future," he says. Swidarski echoed Luria's view. "These banks remain conservative with capital deployments in this recessionary environment," Swidarski said. The ATM manufacturer's Financial Self-Service business generated revenue of $268.7 million during the quarter, down 6% compared with $286.8 million for the same three-month period in 2007. Revenue for Financial Self-Service products was $314.4 million, down 4.8% from $330.1 million. As a company, Diebold reported total revenues of $822.9 million, down 6.5% from $880 million in 2007. Net income was $5.9 million. That compares with a loss of $10.1 million for the same three-month period in 2007. Diebold reported full-year total net sales of approximately $3.2 billion, up 10.3% from $2.9 billion in 2007. Net income for the year totaled $93.5 million, up 136.7% from $39.5 million.
