Linfox Armaguard has struck agreements with Suncorp and three customer-owned banks that will give more than 1 million customers fee-free access to the company’s automated teller network.
The deals are the first negotiated with card issuing institutions since last year when ANZ contracted to give up to 8 million retail and business customers free use of Armaguard’s 2100 machines that are marketed under the “atmx” brand.
Under the latest deals Suncorp’s 1 million customers will secure direct access to atmx tellers across the country as will about 40,000 cardholders of Horizon Bank, Broken Hill Community Credit Union and Central Murray CU.
Suncorp and the three customer-owned banks are the first institutions that were subscribed to the Redi ATM network to negotiate new access agreements to the atmx network.
While Armaguard acquired the Redi ATM business from Cuscal two years ago, new contracts had to be negotiated for access to continue through atmx.
Armaguard’s head of ATM networks Con Tsiknis said he was confident that around 30 card issuers linked to the Redi fleet would negotiate new access arrangements for their customers.
“We are in negotiations with other banks,” he said.
“I expect there will be more announcements in October and November and that most of the card issuers that used Redi will come over to atmx.”
Tsiknis said Armaguard was investing heavily in upgrading the functionality of ATMs in its fleet and expected to begin the roll out of new machines early next year that would have full recycling capability.
Recycling functionality is a vital aspect of improving the economics of managing ATM fleets, particularly in rural and remote parts of the country where the cost of replenishing machines with notes is high.
Recycler ATMs enable notes deposited into machines by customers to be used or “recycled” for withdrawals.
Armaguard is expecting to take delivery of 25 new recyclers from Diebold Nixdorf towards the end of the year, most of which are earmarked for siting in regional areas.
The new machines are also programmed to provide so-called “Follow Me Branding” services to banks.
When cardholders insert cards into the new atmx machines, the Follow Me Branding capability triggers the user interface of the customer’s institution to be displayed on screen.
“That is an option for all our issuers,” Tsiknis said.
“Once the card is inserted the colour scheme and signage of the institution associated with the card is displayed for the user.”
Armaguard appears to be more advanced in the roll out of its network than rival ATM provider, Prosegur, which is now running pilots for its “Precinct” branded network.
However, Prosegur already has a material slice of the Australian banking market after purchasing 750 offsite ATMs from Westpac in 2019.
Under the deal struck with Prosegur, Westpac agreed to subsidise the cost of its customers accessing the Precinct fleet.