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Bank Machine Ltd., a United Kingdom-based ATM operator, said Thursday it would establish its own "cash-in-transit" operation that would enable the company to ship its own cash to its ATMs. Bank Machine is owned by United States-based Cardtronics Inc., which recently complained of unreliable armored-car delivery service in the United Kingdom, according to CardLine Global sister publication ATM&Debit News. Bank Machine has spent 3 million pounds (US$4.4 million or 3.5 million euros) on "a state-of-the-art cash centre and secure vehicles," among other purchases, a Bank Machine spokesperson tells CardLine Global. The firm hopes the new operation will cover several thousand ATM sites in the UK within three years. Bank Machine, which has deployed some 2,500 ATMs, "will transport [its] own cash to [its] own ATMs, although [the company] will continue to work with other cash-in-transit operators for the time being," the spokesperson says. The ATM firm "may offer the service to third parties in the future," the spokesperson adds. In a statement, Bank Machine says establishing the cash-transport operation will provide "stability" in an industry that has seen significant mergers over the past year, reducing choice and increasing costs for cash transit. In May, for instance, UK-based G4S PLC, which offers cash transit and other security services, bought another British security company, ArmorGroup International.
