Crédit Mutuel, BNP Paribas and Société Générale unveil their new joint ATM brand

BNP Paribas, Crédit Mutuel (excluding Arkéa) and Société Générale unveiled on Wednesday the new terms and conditions for the pooling of their ATMs. The first shared ATMs are expected to be launched at the end of the year under a single brand name: "Cash Services".

FACTS

• The banks, united under a common entity called 2SF (Société des Services Fiduciaires) which will lead the implementation of this transformation.

•  The three networks operate nearly a third of the French ATM network, i.e. approximately 15,000 ATMs out of a total of 48,000.

• CASH SERVICES will be progressively deployed on all ATMs from Q4 2023 until the end of 2025, whether they are located in bank branches or in other public spaces (shopping centres, stations, etc.).

• Cash Services will guarantee all customers of the partner banks free access to an "expanded range of services", the three banks announced in a press release.

• This operation is also an opportunity to modernise the fleet of ATMs, while reducing their environmental footprint, with "latest generation equipment that uses less energy".

CHALLENGES

• The study phase of the project was launched in October 2021. A major mapping exercise has been underway since November 2022 to determine, municipality by municipality, which ATMs should be removed or replaced. The final result of this new territorial network could be known at the end of the first quarter of 2023.

• Rationalising the network: Several thousand ATMs are expected to disappear over the next few years, mainly in the most densely populated and best equipped areas. The objective for these three banks is to make savings, while maintaining a sufficient presence on the French territory.

• Respecting their accessibility obligation: In 2021, 2% of ATMs in France were removed, i.e. 1,000 machines. The three banking groups assure that 99% of the population will have access to a cash withdrawal service within a 15-minute drive.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Access to cash remains a major concern in France. Cash payments accounted for 50% of in-store transactions in 2022, according to a study by the European Central Bank.

• In Switzerland, a citizens' committee has launched a popular initiative to enshrine the obligation to carry cash in the constitution. The initiative is called "Yes to a free and independent Swiss currency in the form of coins and notes". It demands that cash should always be available in sufficient quantities.

• In its draft budget for 2023, the Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni recently proposed raising the ceiling on transactions that can be settled in cash from €1,000 (as in France) to €5,000, as well as allowing merchants to refuse digital payments of less than €60. It sees digital payments as an "illegitimate gift to banks and a hidden tax on small businesses and households".

• Since the end of November 2022, "ING Cash" gives customers the possibility to make deposits and withdrawals from their current accounts at over 12,000 business partners in Germany.