Santander UK Turns ATM Operations Over to NCR

Santander UK has expanded its partnership with enterprise technology provider NCR, a move that illustrates the trend of banks using ATMs to bridge the physical and digital banking gap.

Santander has chosen NCR’s ATM-as-a-service offering to “transform, connect and run its self-service network of more than 1,700 ATMs across the United Kingdom,” according to a Monday (Nov. 21) news release from NCR.

Santander UK, an arm of the banking giant Banco Santander S.A., offers commercial and retail banking to more than 14 million customers in Britain.

With the partnership, the bank is moving the operational management of its “self-service channel, including software, transaction processing, cash management, ATM monitoring, help desk, hardware maintenance, and more to NCR,” the release said.

The expanded partnership arrives a little more than two months after NCR announced it was dividing itself into two distinct publicly traded companies, with one dealing exclusively with ATMs and the other focused on online commerce.

“It has become clear that NCR has the opportunity to unlock value for our shareholders by separating our digital commerce business and our ATM business,” Frank R. Martire, executive chairman of the NCR Board of Directors, said at the time.

“We have made significant strides over the past four years in creating a leading software-as-a-service business while continuing to strengthen and grow the ATM business.”

PYMNTS wrote earlier this year that the ATM is something of an unsung hero in banking’s digital transformation. Close to 11% of banking customers use ATMs as their main banking channel, and approximately 41% point to ATMs as a routine way they access banking services.

ATMs are also favored more than drive-up tellers, which just 5% of consumers identify as their primary banking channel. The global ATM market’s expansion is an indicator of the technology’s enduring popularity. It hit $20.18 billion in 2020, and its 4.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is anticipated to continue through 2028.

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