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Wells Fargo & Co. last week announced it is deploying 277 envelope-free ATMs in the Los Angeles area to serve customers and save trees.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo plans to install the ATMs throughout Los Angeles, Alicia Moore, head of Wells Fargo ATM banking, tells ATM&DebitNews.
The ATMs, which are made by Wincor Nixdorf AG, a Paderborn, Germany-based
manufacturer, are bulk cash deposit machines that accept up to 30 checks and 50 bank notes at one time, Moore says.
Wells Fargo was the nation's first major bank to roll out bulk cash and bulk check
deposit envelope-free ATMs, deploying the machines in 2006. The bank's network has 6,950 ATMs, including 1,575 envelope-free machines.
Although the ATMs destined for the Los Angeles area are basically the same as those introduced two years ago, the bank has made some adjustments as customers have become more accustomed to the machines, Moore says.
"Depositors initially thought it was great to see on the computer screen images of each deposited check," she says. "After they grew to trust the technology, they did not want to see the checks on the screen. It was interesting to see the checks on the screen the first time but not the 10th time."
The ATMs convert paper checks into digital images, which appear on the ATM screen and on a receipt if they decide to accept one. Depositors who still want to see their checks on the ATM screen can do so. They also can receive thumbnail images of their checks on the ATM screen, Moore says.
Wells Fargo also expanded the number of bank notes the ATMs can accept to 50 from 30 and the number of checks it can accept to 30 from 10. With envelope-free ATMs, Wells Fargo can credit deposits received by 8 p.m. on the same day. The ATMs also increase deposits, but Moore was unable to provide statistics.
The ATMs have one slot to accept bank notes and checks. The depositor presses a button telling the ATM he is depositing checks. He presses
another button, telling the machine he is depositing cash. Those actions, however,
may become a thing of the past. Sometime next year, Wells Fargo plans to test Wincor Nixdorf's newest ATM, which is called Mixed Media.
Instead of depositing checks and cash separately, bank customers can use Mixed
Media to deposit a mixture of bank notes and checks into one slot at the same time, Moore says.
"We have been negotiating with [Wincor Nixdorf], and as soon as we get Mixed Media we will begin piloting it," she says.
Eckard Heidloff, Wincor Nixdorf president and CEO, discussed the company's latest ATM in very general terms with ATM&Debit News earlier this month during an interview in New York (ADN, 9/11).
While Wincor Nixdorf's envelope-free ATMs represent a technological breakthrough, the manufacturer's science also has helped Wells Fargo bask in an environmentalist glow as companies scramble to show they are concerned with the ecosphere. Global warming has become a hot topic, so to speak, as evidenced by a recent issue of The New York Times with a 12-page section titled the "Business of Green."
In the two years since Wells Fargo began installing envelope-free ATMs, the bank says ithas processed 49 million checks with the machines, eliminating the need for 30.1 million envelopes.
That equates to 245 tons of paper and saves 4,116 trees, the bank says, based on estimates by the Environmental Defense Paper Calculator, a service of the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund.
Rachel Beckhardt, Environmental Defense Fund project manager for corporate partnerships at the, demonstrated the Paper Calculator for ATM&Debit News.
Beckhardt, who read Wells Fargo's news release, lauded the bank for its efforts.
Wells Fargo said depositors also could save more paper if they choose not to print
receipts.
