Many ATMs have disappeared in recent years. Cash use is on the decline, the machines themselves are expensive to run, and robberies are a growing concern for banks.
To pool resources, five Luxembourg banks are now launching a shared ATM network. The first machines have recently been installed, with seven already up and running.
LuxConstellation, the company behind the 'Bancomat' (ATM in Luxembourgish) project, laid out the details on Wednesday afternoon.
They are blue, and bear no bank name. Customers of Spuerkeess, BGL BNP Paribas, BIL, POST and Raiffeisen Bank can use these new, neutral machines with their own cards at no extra charge.
Customers of all five partner banks, Thibaut Monier of LuxConstellation explained, would be able to access their own interface, their own banking environment and the full range of services at these 237 ATMs.
The banks' existing ATMs are being replaced gradually. By next year, 237 of the new blue machines are expected to be in service.
In sheer numbers, there are considerably fewer of them than a few years ago; geographically, however, they are better placed.
The baseline, Monier noted, is a 5km radius by road. In 2023, there had been around 400 units in service, which translated into around 91.68% coverage.
The fleet had since been reduced and streamlined, in particular by cutting out overlap in certain geographical areas, with the aim of reaching around 94% coverage at some point in 2027.
The machines accept contactless cards and smartphones. They also come fitted with state-of-the-art security systems.
Ink, Monier explained, is released onto the banknotes to render them unusable, and gas detection systems have been installed across the entire fleet.
Until now, individual banks had been running their own networks, and would have faced large investment costs going it alone, explained Charles Pletsch, head of retail banking at Spuerkeess.
Each bank, Pletsch said, had done its own calculations to see whether the project was worthwhile for them.
It was clear, in his view, that they were all in agreement on going ahead, which meant that it really was an attractive path for every bank involved. The banks, however, are remaining tight-lipped about just how much the new system will save them.
A single ATM costs around €25,000, with the surrounding unit costing roughly the same again. More than €70 million is being invested over a seven-year period.
