01/09/2022

ATMs headed the way of the payphone

Payments Dive

• Dive Brief:

  • The availability of ATMs may have peaked at 470,000 units scattered across the U.S. in 2019, with a fall-off since then to 462,000 in 2020 and an estimated 456,000 last year, a spokesperson for research firm Euromonitor International said in updating its report on financial cards and payments in the U.S. Kendrick Sands, Euromonitor’s head of Consumer Finance Research, expects that downward trend to continue.
  • The automated tellers are disappearing in tandem with banks closing local branches. The banking strategy pivot comes as digital banking and payment alternatives become more widespread.
  • Reduced demand for cash globally is raising costs for servicing the machines, “prompting banks to review ATM footprints,” according to consulting firm McKinsey’s annual global payments report from October.
   

  Dive Insight:

  Between 2015 and 2019, ATMs kept popping up across the U.S., rising 8% from 434,000 to 470,000 machines during that period, according to Euromonitor. But now a confluence of consumer behavior changes are curtailing the appeal of the automatic cash dispensers once seen as revolutionary in the 20th century.

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