ATMs – the revolution is coming. The new requirement will cost money

In a month’s time, 40 percent of all devices will have to have a banknote neutralization system. – It’s called a banknote coloring system because it works in such a way that tampering with the device causes the system to activate. From the machine, it stains all the banknotes, stains the banknotes with paint – explains Adam Matyaszek, Vice-President of the Management Board of IT Card, Planet Cash ATMs.

The new solution is a requirement of the regulations of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, and the stained banknotes look like this:

– The regulation says that the coloring systems should be installed in the most vulnerable ATMs and each ATM owner must determine for himself how to determine which ATMs are more and which are less vulnerable to attacks – explains Krzysztof Kołodziejczyk from the Polish Organization of Cash Service Companies .

For ATM owners, installing a system is a big investment. In the case of one device, it costs about PLN 20,000. The ATM alone is worth about $40,000.

– It is difficult to say that the ATM business is profitable at all – assesses Matyaszek.

There are currently 21,434 ATMs in Poland. In recent months, 124 devices have arrived. But comparing the latest data with those from six years ago, there is a clear downward trend – in 2017 there were 23,759.

– International payment organizations, which are responsible for the amount of commission that the ATM holder receives for each of our withdrawals, have not wanted to agree to make these rates real for years and they have been unchanged for over 10 years – says Kołodziejczyk.

IT Card, the second largest company in Poland in terms of the number of ATMs, owns almost 4.5 thousand machines. It will have to invest PLN 25 million.

– It is known that the costs of installing each ATM will increase, therefore the number of new devices installed will certainly decrease. There will be more restrictive parameters to select places where these ATMs will be installed. And of course, the biggest dilemma here will be those small towns, where there are simply fewer such transactions – Matyaszek points out.

Cooperative banks may also have problems, and Poles recently want to have cash in their wallets again. In the first quarter, almost PLN 148 billion were withdrawn from ATMs.

– Do I pay cash? Yes. Why? Because I like to have money in my hand, and not somewhere in the bank, who knows where, the Russian money will be taken – says Anna, a resident of Bialystok.

– From the point of view of security, i.e. building reserves, i.e. having money for the last hour or in a difficult situation, the household resources, i.e. the cash we have under the pillow, somewhere in the bedroom, have also increased – emphasizes economist Marek Zuber.

MIA decided to introduce additional security systems after a wave of thefts and attacks on ATMs. In the justification to the draft regulations, which were adopted two years ago, data for 2018 were quoted. Then there were 108 such crimes, a year later – 130.

– From the data that I was able to extract some time ago, this is data from 2020, there were 57 attempts to break into an ATM, of which 7 were successful. So we have such a scale that there are not many burglaries and this is also a downward trend – says economic journalist Maciej Bednarek, “Subiektywnie o Finansowy”.

But that can change at any time. IN Germany There were as many as half a thousand attacks on ATMs last year. It’s a gigantic increase.

– This is a huge problem in that market – emphasizes Kołodziejczyk.

The new system is gaining popularity in Europe because, after all, the point is to make dirty money useless for criminals.