Lindsay Fox’s Armaguard business - the country’s largest independent ATM operator – has begun to rebrand its national network after acquiring parts of the ANZ and CBA fleets earlier this year.
In a statement issued yesterday, the company said it had commenced a program to rebrand offsite ANZ and CBA machines to ‘atmx’.
A company spokesperson said the program was expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Armaguard is locked in a battle with global cash logistics rival Prosegur to secure control of the Australian ATM market as banks downsize their proprietary fleets in response to the consumer drift to digital payment methods.
The companies are vying to acquire non-branch machines from the major banks to bolster their respective claims to become the operator of utility ATM services across the Australian banking industry.
While Armaguard has forged strategic ties with ANZ and CBA, Prosegur last year negotiated a deal to take control of most of Westpac’s offsite ATMs.
The battle is set to upend the universal free access that Australian ATM users have enjoyed since September 2017 when the major banks binned transaction fees.
Under the deal Armaguard struck with ANZ, all of the bank’s customers will continue to have fee-free access to former bank-owned machines now being rebranded to atmx.
However, Banking Day has discovered that customers whose banks have not struck deals with Armaguard, are set to incur a fee of $2.50 each time they pull cash from an atmx machine.
A screen message on one atmx seen by Banking Day warns the fee will be applied to non-approved cards.
Armaguard and Prosegur are now hanging on a strategic announcement from National Australia Bank, which recently called for expressions of interest from ATM operators to service its proprietary fleet.
While the NAB process is ostensibly focused on bids to service and maintain its ATM network, the bank is also expected to offload part of its network.