Armaguard will take over the mandate to maintain and service National Australia Bank’s automated teller network after edging out NCR and Prosegur to secure the contract.

The deal will end a longstanding arrangement between NAB and NCR, with the bank said to be already in talks to prepare for a transition to Armaguard subsidiary Integrated Technology Servces (ITS).

Under the new deal, ITS will also assume responsibility for monitoring, storage and logistics for the NAB fleet across the country.

NAB has aggressively reduced the size of its ATM fleet since September 2018 when it reported having 2695 machines.

It now operates less than 1000 branded ATMs; these are mostly sited at branches.

While the reduced fleet makes the contract less lucrative than previous NAB tenders, it potentially gives Armaguard unique leverage to expand its proprietary ATM network in the future.

Armaguard and Prosegur are locked in a war for control of Australia’s ATM industry and are vying to negotiate special access deals with banks to give their customers fee-free access to their proprietary networks.

Armaguard last year acquired a large chunk of ANZ’s proprietary machines, which have since been rebadged to the 'atmx' brand.

ANZ customers have been given free access to the atmx network after the bank agreed to pay ongoing access fees to Armaguard.

Prosegur acquired most of Westpac’s offsite ATMs in 2019 which are progressively being rebranded under the “Precinct” banner.

Westpac customers get free access to the Precinct machines.

Banks are coming under pressure to enter access deals with the monoliners as customer demand for cash declines and the economics of operating ATM fleets becomes more challenging.