Dive Brief:
- Card issuer American Express will give its U.S. customers access to an additional 40,000 ATMs later this year, according to a Feb. 13 press release from NCR Atleos, which will provide the machines. Amex already provides free cash access at over 37,000 U.S. ATMs through the MoneyPass network.
- Operated by NCR Atleos, the ATMs are part of the Allpoint Network and will grant Amex’s business and checking account customers access to cash without an ATM fee, the release said. Allpoint ATMs provide surcharge-free withdrawals for participating financial institutions.
- “Our network powers digital banking leaders such as American Express with the physical endpoints their customers expect and demand,” NCR Atleos Executive Vice President Diego Navarrete said in the release.
Dive Insight:
New York-based American Express “has been subtly trying to go downstream, so to speak, for many years,” Gray Consulting Principal Cliff Gray said in a Feb. 14 interview. Gray connected the announcement to a long-running strategy by Amex to grow its business beyond the wealthy clients the company has traditionally courted.
Gray also pointed to Amex’s desire to consolidate its customers’ experience. “They are all in-house, right, they are acquirer, issuer, network all-in-one so it would make less sense if they weren't connected to a good ATM network like NCR [Atleos],” Gray said.
Atlanta-based NCR Atleos is the product of a split last October by payments software and technology company NCR Corporation into two businesses. NCR Atleos focuses on ATM services, while NCR Voyix focuses on retail, hospitality and digital banking operations. NCR Atleos reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $161 million last week.
Amex did not immediately respond to questions about the partnership with NCR Atleos.
