February 2021


The ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) launched the official global certification system for Next Gen ATMs, the culmination of a four-year long industry project to create a new API App model for ATMs, integrating ATMs and mobile phones in one seamless new ecosystem.

"I'm proud and delighted to announce that the Consortium for Next Gen ATMs, made up of over 400 participating companies in 55 countries, working together since 2017, has created a brand new global architecture for app-based ATMs," said Mike Lee, CEO of ATMIA, Chairperson of the Consortium for Next Gen ATMs and President of the ATM Security Association. "Now that the online certification system for the new architecture has gone live on the ATMIA Next Gen portal, companies from anywhere in the world can certify their ATM products and services as Next Gen ready and receive their association certification badge of approval."

The launch of the official certification system to test Next Gen ATM readiness inaugurates what the trade association calls a "race to the top" to see where the world's first certified Next Gen ATM will soon be installed.

"In addition to identifying the world's first Next Gen ATM, ATMIA will highlight regional firsts across the regions of the world, so the industry can celebrate its successes in the reinvention of the ATM after over 50 years of excellent service to millions of customers," Lee added.

A qualified futurist, and author of Codebreaking our Future, available on Amazon, Lee believes that Next Gen ATMs, which will enable customers to pre-stage ATM transactions on their mobile phones, could signal the beginning of the end of the plastic bank card. At the same time, Next Gen ATMs will make depositing and withdrawing cash easier.

"Customers will transact at Next Gen ATMs using their mobile phones, reducing the time of the transaction while increasing its convenience, security and intimacy, and so they won't need their cards to make ATM cash withdrawals in future," Lee said.

"The interoperability made possible by the vendor-agnostic Next Gen architecture creates a level playing-field for the industry and will create a new supply and demand cycle," the project's Technical Adviser, Marcel Ficken, MBA, of Result XL in the Netherlands, explained.

The online certification system will be simple to use and allow companies to certify their products rapidly, according to ATMIA's Web Development & IT Director, Eric Cross.

"The certification process can be started within minutes by creating an account and completing the initial product assessment," he said.

"This was a mammoth future-proofing exercise, based on unprecedented levels of global consensus, which has produced a watertight blueprint for the future and I call upon the ATM industry to become fully integrated into the mobile-digital world that dominates society in our times, optimizing the channel's growing power," Lee added.

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