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ATM Marketplace: March Top 5

This year, March roared in not so much like a lion as it did like a bear, on the heels of weak earnings reports in February from NCR, Diebold and Cardtronics. Happily, though our most-ready stories of the month offered a more optimistic view to carry us into spring.

ATM Marketplace: March Top 5 all images istock

March 30, 2018 | by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

This year, March roared in not so much like a lion as it did like a bear, on the heels of weak earnings reports in February from NCR, Diebold and Cardtronics.

Happily, though, several of our most-ready stories of the month offered a more optimistic view of the future to carry us into spring.

In case any of the top five ATM Marketplace features blew by you in March, we've pinned them all down here for your review:

5) Diebold looks for traction amid integration effort, anemic ATM sales

Diebold recently held its first earnings call since the departure of Andy Mattes. Aside from his absence, the Q4 presentation was about the same as the previous three, showing slow ATM sales, modest gains for software and services, and ongoing integration costs.

Despite a growing preference for digital account interaction, consumers still rely on ATMs for cash, account access and and more advanced functions, making these machines an increasingly critical point of connection between an FI and its customers.

Cash demand has risen right along with payment card transactions during the past decade-and-a-half. What's up with that? We went looking for an answer in "Payments are a-changin' but cash still rules," a publication from the Bank for International Settlements.

Major banks have already begun to invest in promising blockchain projects, and distributed ledger technology now seems poised to disrupt retail banking in an unprecedented way.

Cardtronics faces headwinds in a global cash delivery market that is increasingly competitive and uncertain. But if the company can build on a culture of operational excellence while shoring up a wounded balance sheet, its future would appear to be bright.

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Suzanne Cluckey

Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.