Mobile Marketing and Commerce Strategies

Contactless technology eventually may be used for services beyond retail purchases, as Bank of America recently filed a patent application for a contactless ATM.

Contactless technology eventually may be used for services beyond retail purchases, as Bank of America recently filed a patent application for a contactless ATM.

According to Tech Crunch, the bank’s patent filing covers “apparatuses, methods and computer program products for receiving a contactless transmission from an external apparatus.” While pointing out that contactless technology has been—to this point, at least—reserved for point-of-sale (POS) terminals, Bank of America also acknowledges the opportunities it could present bank customers at the ATM. The bank also included with its application artist renderings of what the machines would look like.

This is a good first step in the creation of a contactless ATM, but Bank of America still must overcome certain hurdles. Not the least of which is the time it will take for the patent application to be pushed through, as the process is well known for moving at a slow pace.

Yankee Group Principal Analyst Nick Holland comments

“Given the current state of NFC penetration in the U.S., it may be somewhat premature for Bank of America to be considering contactless ATM technology. Further, similar initiatives have been developed before (NCR in Scotland, for instance, developed a Bluetooth enabled ATM in 2000) without coming to market, even when contactless cards were in vogue around 2006. Bank of America’s patent application may therefore have far more to do with demonstrating technology leadership than in actually having plans to execute. It will be a long time before ATMs exist that won’t accept plastic.”

This is a good first step in the creation of a contactless ATM, but Bank of America still must overcome certain hurdles. Not the least of which is the time it will take for the patent application to be pushed through, as the process is well known for moving at a slow pace.

Yankee Group Principal Analyst Nick Holland comments

“Given the current state of NFC penetration in the U.S., it may be somewhat premature for Bank of America to be considering contactless ATM technology. Further, similar initiatives have been developed before (NCR in Scotland, for instance, developed a Bluetooth enabled ATM in 2000) without coming to market, even when contactless cards were in vogue around 2006. Bank of America’s patent application may therefore have far more to do with demonstrating technology leadership than in actually having plans to execute. It will be a long time before ATMs exist that won’t accept plastic.”