A Time for Post-Pandemic Reinvention

While COVID-19 turns the world upside-down, the industry is working hard behind the scenes, not just to keep access to cash and other ATM services going at the frontlines of the pandemic but to reinvent the ATM and position our industry for future growth. I can think of three global projects, for example, which can and will revolutionize our industry: (i) the Consortium for Next Gen ATMs, which now has 329 companies worldwide participating in the future-proofing exercise to create a new interoperable API App model for ATMs; (ii) the ATM Security Association has outlined the requirements to build a global Crime Intelligence System for the ATM industry and (iii) and a new vendor-agnostic XFS standard called XFS4IoT is being drafted as we speak.

The COVID-19 tragedy has intensified the need to reinvent the ATM to make the popular terminal truly fit for purpose in the mobile-digital world, just as a new social order, or “new normal”, is emerging on the other side of the pandemic, which will make people more hygiene conscious. ATMIA is busy setting up a new ATM Hygiene and Safety Committee to look into best practices for a cleaning protocol for the times we now live in. At the same time, our industry is demanding a wider range of ATM functionalities, many of which are compatible with Next Gen ATM architecture. Thought leader, futurist and payments veteran, Donna Embry is running an IAD focus group to examine the rerquirements of IADs for Next Gen ATMs. These are the value add functionalities they feel are important:

•        Mobile/cardless

•        Cryptocurrency (Buy/sell)

•        Dynamic Currency conversion (DCC)

•        Pre-staged transactions, including cash withdrawals

•        Redemption of rewards and other monetization

•        Online gaming (cash in/redeem winnings)

•        Deposit/Cash in

•        Money transfer

•        Credit vouchers for merchants

•        Integration with merchant-acquiring at POS

The Next Gen ATM API App based architecture is very flexible and is geared up to enable many of these functionalities with as much interoperability as possible.

The level of global consensus in this project is incredible and it’s inspiring to see the industry working hard on the frontlines and behind-the-scenes to ensure that a new dawn for ATMs awaits us when we can put behind us the sadness and devastation of COVID-19.

About Mike Lee, ATMIA CEO - Mike Lee has been CEO of ATMIA since 2005. He is a qualified futurist and his second book on study of the future Codebreaking our Future is available on Amazon.  Mike is President of the ATM Security Association and Chairperson of the Consortium for Next Gen ATMs.