Time for New ATM Business Models

Guillaume Lepecq, Chair of Cash Essentials, and Matt Sykes, from the CPT Group, have written a paper about the business model of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). Their conclusion? Circumstances have changed, and ATM business models need rethinking ¹.

Ajay Banga, who was CEO of Mastercard until 2021, said at the end of his time at Mastercard, ‘I think cashless, actually, is something we’re not going to get to, and we probably shouldn’t’. This comment reflects a change of mood that is increasingly apparent, that cash has a unique value and needs to be sustained.

Sadly this mood is in part driven by a visible decline in cash use. The paper puts this down not to a lack of demand for cash, but a supply-side problem, particularly the sustainability of ATM business models.