The ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) has published an ATM and Cash Revival Plan “for an ATM industry hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“The advocacy plan has two prongs, a Cash Revival Plan and an ATM Revival Plan,” ATMIA says.

“To revive cash use, we will continue our cashless bans campaign to ensure mandatory acceptance of cash at retail outlets in markets such as the USA, Europe, Canada, UK and Australia,” CEO Mike Lee says.

“We will aim to make the deposit of cash (notes and coins) at ATMs as accessible as possible, while conducting some much-needed PR on the top values of cash, including its role in financial inclusion, household budgeting and its popularity across several demographic groups.”

The Cash Revival Plan will also look at increasing the competitiveness of cash as a payment method by improving cash management and logistics, ATMIA says.

“The ATM Revival Plan will include a global protocol for ATM hygiene for what we believe will be a hygiene-conscious society after Covid-19,” Lee adds.

The new ATM Hygiene and Safety Protocol will include a series of recommended best practices, including the provision of hand sanitiser at ATMs, the use of keypad overlays, the addition of sanitising additives to notes during manufacture, note cleansing within the ATM, pre-staging of transactions, and messaging about the ability of contactless cards and mobile phones to reduce the amount of physical contact needed when using an ATM.

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