NCR Corp. says its Scalable Deposit Module for ATMs has strong momentum at large banks.
The device allows multiple checks and cash to be deposited at once in the same slot of automated teller machines. After more than a year of development and pilot testing, NCR said, the module's early success with large banks has positioned it to be a significant driver of the vendor's sales volume this year.
NCR announced Monday that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will place hundreds of machines equipped with the module in branches nationwide.
Wells Fargo & Co. is also deploying machines equipped with the module. Several more top-10 retail banking companies are doing pilot tests or placing similar orders, said the Duluth, Ga., vendor.
NCR said that the publicity its large-bank clients have put behind its technology's capabilities is driving sales.
"Wells and Chase have been such big supporters, public supporters," said Michael O'Laughlin, a vice president and the general manager of NCR's financial services business. "If you have watched any football in the last four months you see a lot of [advertisements] around intelligent deposits from the big banks."
After an 18-month deployment, "we will continue to evaluate and upgrade where appropriate," Michael Fusco, a JPMorgan Chase spokesman, said in an e-mail. "We chose NCR because they are currently the only distributor with this new technology that can mix check and cash deposits."
JPMorgan Chase has about 16,000 ATMs in the United States.
Wells began rolling out about 200 of the mixed-media modules across Colorado in early November. The retail banking company is still in the midst of that deployment, said a spokeswoman.
NCR's hardware can accept up to 50 items at once, including combinations of checks and cash. NCR said its device halves the time it takes to make envelope-free deposits at an ATM.
"It's faster, and that's what all the banks are looking at," said Bob Meara, a senior banking analyst at Celent. "The first challenge in doing anything innovative at the ATM is speed."
In past implementations, customers had to either put cash and checks in separate slots, submit them one at a time, or deposit them together in an envelope. Most check-imaging ATMs today can accept multiple items in bulk.
NCR's new module reads handwriting, separates bundles and allows instant deposits.
The module resembles technology also offered by Diebold Inc. and Wincor Nixdorf AG, but each manufacturer's system has slight variations.
For example, Diebold's bulk deposit system has separate cash and check acceptors. It said the use of separate slots averts jamming.
Larger banking companies like Wells and Bank of America Corp., along with credit unions, have been early adopters of modern self-service technology.
Most likely, Diebold is working on a similar single-slot module, industry analysts said. A spokesman for the North Canton, Ohio, ATM maker said he could not comment on Diebold's plans for this technology.
Despite the momentum NCR cited, obstacles exist to adopting its technology.
A single slot is more likely to jam, preventing check and cash deposits altogether, whereas a machine with two slots could continue to function, industry analysts said. Further, price may be a barrier to adoption.
"It's a lot of money, and a number of banks are still in the mind-set that ATM usage" is in decline, said Meara. "Nothing could be further from the truth, but that was a trend four or five years ago."
Meara estimated that NCR's module could cost about $20,000, though some banks may be able to negotiate a lower price.
The most obvious beneficiaries of this add-on, he said, would be small-business owners who use ATMs to deposit large amounts of checks and cash.
Wells, which worked with NCR on developing the technology for over a year, said its decision to buy the module stemmed from a desire for a streamlined interface.
"The reason why this is important is, it is just a simpler transaction, as opposed to feeding checks in one at a time and doing all this extra busy work," said Jonathan Velline, Wells' senior vice president for ATM banking and store strategy. "You just deposit, and you just put it into the machine, and that's going to benefit everyone."
The customers most likely to use the technology are the bank's most profitable ones, industry analysts said.
"Small businesses would be the biggest users," said Don Rhodes, the senior director of risk management policy at the American Bankers Association. "Particularly for community banks, that would be a big draw because small businesses can make their deposits faster and that can attract more [customers] to your bank," Rhodes said.
As the price point is pushed down by big orders, community bankers will eventually adopt the technology, he said.
