BNZ's fresh ATM technology a first

Photo / APN

By the end of the week BNZ will have updated 450 of its ATMs with technology that promises to cut time and make the experience more user friendly for customers.

The machines will be updated with NCR Predictive Services, technology that will be able to predict issues before they occur. BNZ is the first bank in the world to adopt this technology, which means its ATMs will be the first to foresee issues and repair them remotely or organise for a maintenance team to be sent. This will be especially useful for ATMs in regional and rural areas where it is difficult to get engineers at short notice.

NCR tested this software on 8500 ATMs in the US.

BNZ chief operating officer Stephen Mockett said "increasingly other banks will use the technology".

"Everything we are trying to do is making it easier for the customer to utilise ATMs. There is nothing more frustrating when it's [the ATM] down.

"It's becoming more and more important that the software we are using is working and is robust."

Mockett said ATMs were made up of very complex and sophisticated software systems, and like any piece of software they could fail or suffer from electrical faults.

He said this was why backup systems were important because they helped mitigate risk.