DETROIT -- Convenience-store retailers may soon see yet another invasion of mobile-app users. No, not another gaggle of “Pokemon Go” players, but people using mobile apps to get cash out of ATMs.
A few banks are starting to offer cash withdrawals at ATMs using mobile apps, receiving authentication through the mobile scan of a Quick Response (QR) code or by tapping the device on the machine, according to theDetroit News.
The idea is to help customers who have forgotten their cards or who worry about thieves stealing their card data via ATMs. While so-called cardless cash access is available at only about 2,000 of the half-million or so U.S. ATMs in use today, it’s expanding rapidly and will be available at as many as 95,000 machines by year-end, said the article, which cited payments researcher Crone Consulting LLC, San Francisco.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, plans to roll out the feature later this year. Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C., said it will extend the technology to 5,000 ATMs by year end. And Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, is letting some users of mobile wallets such as Apple Pay authenticate through their phone, and it expects more than 40% of its ATMs to be enabled for this technology by year-end.
In possibly the largest deployment to date, Payment Alliance International, Louisville, Ky., one of the nation’s largest closely held providers of ATM processing and maintenance services, is poised to roll out the technology in August or September, and it plans to have cardless cash access at 25,000 machines in stores and gas stations by the end of 2017.
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