The number of companies participating in the Consortium for Next Gen ATMs has risen from 210 at the beginning of the year to 280 worldwide. The Standards, Technical & Governance Committee is set to approve a new high level Javascript API for Next Gen ATMs, after which there will be a three month online public consultation period. This will be the backbone of the new Next Gen ATM architecture and will co-exist with a low level XFS layer, which will be updated when XFS4IoT becomes available. A Next Gen ATM is an app-based ATM and will enable fast, frictionless customer experiences at the ATM, for easy access to cash, digital payments and a range of value-add services, as the ATM and customer-owned mobile phones become increasingly integrated. It's a happy marriage between the favorite customer touchpoint and the world's most dynamic consumer device. The Next Gen ATM ecosystem will be a win-win-win-win: win for deployers, suppliers and third-party disrupters and innovators, win for ATM customers and win for the whole global ATM industry (a rising tide lifts all boats).

In 2020, an online modular self-certification system will be developed for ATMIA, as the project manager for Next Gen ATMs. It will serve as a one-stop shop for the entire global industry to certify and recognize Next Gen products and services as they are produced and aim to go to market.

The race is on to install the very first certified Next Gen ATM. I can assure you I will fly to anywhere in the world to visit that first Next Gen ATM and that ATMIA will generate massive worldwide publicity for this achievement. It will be a milestone second only to the world's first ATM installed by Barclays Bank in London in 1967. For it will represent a complete reinvention of the ATM for the next generation. I believe this will occur in 2020, exactly 53 years after the very first of over 3 million ATMs.

In addition, ATMIA will showcase a prototype of a next Gen ATM at its US event in Houston in February, based on Proofs of Concept analysed by the project's technical advisor, Marcel Ficken. Then, at ATMIA Europe's 2020 conference in Berlin, from October 19-21, I will personally honor a host of Next Gen achievements with a range of prestigious Next Gen ATM awards.

Sound futuristic and exciting? Fasten your seat belts for a rapid ride into the future of our industry in 2020.