Contactless at the ATM: It’s Time for an Industry Conversation

Consumers have become accustomed to tapping their cards, phones, and watches at the point of sale. Naturally, they expect that same convenience at the ATM. When they see the familiar contactless symbol, they assume their card or mobile wallet will work, regardless of who owns or operates the machine.

Right now, that expectation isn’t always being met.

While financial institutions continue promoting contactless capabilities, interoperability across the ATM ecosystem remains inconsistent. Some institutions support contactless cards and mobile wallets at their own ATMs but not at foreign ATMs. Others offer proprietary mobile-app functionality without supporting broader NFC interoperability.

And even when an ATM has the necessary NFC hardware, that doesn’t necessarily mean the functionality has been enabled or certified across the entire transaction chain. We encountered similar challenges during the EMV migration when hardware deployment often preceded full processing readiness.

The dependencies extend well beyond the ATM itself. Issuer authorization systems, issuing and acquiring processors, network certifications, mobile-wallet provisioning, and transaction routing must all work together. In some cases, transactions initially blamed on ATM acquirers have ultimately been traced to issuer host configurations that supported on-us contactless transactions but not their off-us equivalents.

Tokenization adds another layer of complexity. While mobile wallets provide important security benefits, tokenized credentials can complicate BIN identification, domestic network routing, and surcharge-free network participation when the necessary mapping and routing capabilities are unavailable. The result can be declined transactions, unexpected surcharges, or issuers not able to accept transactions through their preferred ATM networks.

These challenges aren’t entirely new. In 2019, the U.S. Payments Forum published its Guidelines for Contactless ATM Transactions: A Guide for ATM Owners and Operators, addressing many of the technical and operational considerations associated with contactless ATM deployment. That guidance provides a valuable foundation, but the industry’s evolving mobile-wallet, tokenization, and routing landscape raises questions about whether broader coordination is now necessary.

More than a decade ago, the EMV migration required cooperation among financial institutions, processors, networks, manufacturers, and ATM operators. Perhaps we’ve reached another point where that same level of industry collaboration is needed.

As an industry, shouldn’t we be working toward a common expectation that when a consumer sees the contactless symbol at an ATM, trademarked by EMVCo, their card or mobile wallet will work, regardless of whose ATM they’re using?

This is precisely the kind of conversation ATMIA and its members should be leading. Not simply about deploying technology, but about addressing the technical, operational, and network dependencies necessary to deliver a consistent experience.

Because ultimately, consumers shouldn’t need to understand the complexities of our industry just to access their own money