Speaking a Common ATM Language

  The ATM industry expects that the recent adoption of a new programming language will enhance the services available through automated teller machines.
  Sometimes, automated teller machines do not communicate well with the rest of the world, including processors and networks switching transactions initiated from them, or bank branches. The machines, for example, use proprietary messaging software, often installed by their manufacturer, that makes it difficult and expensive for them to all support the same services, especially from channels that depend on Internet communications standards.
  Now, though, ATM operators will be able to benefit from the use of common protocols, just as home computers share common Internet-based protocols so users can see and interact with the same Web pages, regardless of terminal type or operating system. On Feb. 19, the Interactive Financial eXchange Forum, a vendor and financial-institution task force, ratified the adoption and release of what the group calls IFX Version 1.4.
  IFX 1.4 is an open-source programming language that many in the industry hope most ATM hardware and software vendors will use. The software is based on Extensible Markup Language, or XML, protocols commonly used by financial institutions so consumers can conduct transactions on Internet banking sites. For example, while some financial institutions are using a few ATMs to offer the same type of bill-payment services offered on Internet sites, using IFX-based software would make such offerings on ATMs much easier and cheaper to link with Internet banking sites.
  Major vendors already have announced alliances to develop products that use IFX 1.4. Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp., a leading supplier of financial-institution ATMs, is teaming up with Omaha, Neb.-based ACI Worldwide Inc., whose Base24 transaction-authorization software is used by some of the nation's largest bank ATM owners and electronic funds transfer transaction processors.
  Jeff Hale, ACI senior vice president of corporate marketing, says ACI expects to offer what it calls an IFX driver built around IFX 1.4 to all Base24 users by the third quarter. "We've got customers today that are interested in pilot projects" using the new driver, he says.
  NCR will begin incorporating IFX 1.4-based programming in its APTRA ATM software later this year as well, says Phil Kasper, assistant vice president of marketing for NCR's ATM division. The change will enable financial institutions to introduce various Internet-based services, such as bill payment, on ATMs quickly, especially if they use APTRA and Base24.
  Existing so-called NDC proprietary programming on NCR machines will need to be replaced, says Kasper. The IFX-based software can be used on all ATM operators' machines, regardless of brand and proprietary messaging software currently used, he says.
  "The IFX device handler allows you to get rid of all of those," he says of old software. A machine, however, must use a Microsoft Corp. Windows-based operating system to work with the IFX 1.4 software, says Kasper.
  The use of IFX 1.4 in terminals along with commercial processing software will enable financial institutions to produce a wide variety of ATM applications that can be quickly and less expensively deployed and tied in to other banking channels, says Kasper.
  For its part, ACI's Base24 could be more widely used to process Internet-based and bank-branch transactions, which usually are conducted using non-ATM authorization software, says Hale.
  Kasper says NCR has negotiated an IFX-enhanced APTRA deal with an undisclosed financial-institution ATM owner. He believes many financial institutions will move toward an IFX-based ATM network in the coming years.
  Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, the nation's largest ATM owner, was part of the IFX working group. "You can infer from the fact that they are on the committee that they plan to do something with this," Kasper says.
  San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. and New York City-based Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank also are part of the IFX Forum.
  NCR's main ATM competitor for bank business, North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc., also has announced it will incorporate IFX 1.4 protocols into its Agilis software for use in most ATM types.