Austria
Left: Intelligent banknote dispensing on the evo cash recycler at Erste Bank
Right: Smart, contactless access and foyer management with the KeBin S10
cards such as a debit card digitally stored on a customer’s
smartphone. Today the smartphone is your constant
companion. The major advantage of digitalized solutions:
those who do not carry a physical bank card with
them are able to gain digital access to the bank foyer via
KEBA's access system, even outside opening hours, and
can immediately withdraw money contactlessly from the
self-service ATMs.
When will this technology see widespread use in your
company?
Erste Bank has already equipped its ATMs with NFC
readers across the board. Within the Austrian group of
savings banks, more than 1,000 cash recyclers and over
500 ATMs are equipped with NFC readers, and the trend
is rising. Some banks already have plans to use KEBA's
NFC-enabled access system, so it will follow a bit more
slowly. One thing is clear: we need to convert our entire
self-service infrastructure to NFC if we want to convince all
our customers of the benefits of this technology.
Can you share customer feedback with us yet?
How do they feel about contactless authentication?
The NFC rollout was completed in December 2020. Even
though we did not promote NFC, more than ten percent
of card authorizations this January were made using NFC
readers. There is also great interest in NFC when it comes
to disability access. For example, we are currently working
on a simple audio description for blind and visually
impaired people that will guide them to the NFC reader.
Where do you see challenges or limitations when it
comes to NFC?
Customers are having a hard time understanding the
different processing procedures for payments in retail
and for self-service transactions at ATMs. For instance,
a self-service ATM always requires your PIN code when
withdrawing small amounts. Finding uniform processes
for this in the future would be highly desirable.
What other innovations in the self-service sector can
you report on?
We recently redesigned the user interface of our self-service
devices to be visually in line with our digital platform
George and an intelligent banknote dispensing function
was also added. We are now able to analyze a customer's
most recent cash withdrawals and provide a favorite icon
on the homescreen based on their previous transactions.
The favorite icon allows the customer to select the preferred
account, cash amount and choice of banknote denominations
with just one click. If the ATM lacks the banknotes
in the requested denominations, it will automatically
offer alternatives to the customer. An innovative solution
that has met with high acceptance among our customers.
Thank you very much for the interview!
19