No money coming out of the wall: ATMs malfunction too often

This article was last updated on October 20, 2023

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Introduction

ATMs were out of order much more often last month than the banks had promised. On average, 1 in 20 Geldmaat machines was defective in September, to be precise, 5.7 percent of the machines. This is evident from data that NOS collected together with regional broadcasters.

Challenges with ATM Maintenance

The company that manages and maintains the machines for the three major banks, Geldmaat, confirms that there are more disruptions and acknowledges that the standard that banks have agreed on for the whole of 2023 will be difficult to achieve. That standard was not achieved last year.

“We are confronted with situations that we did not see coming,” says Peggy Corstens of Geldmaat. According to her, a lack of parts has recently led to malfunctions. “The practice is unruly.”

Government Intervention

The Ministry of Finance regrets that the services are not up to standard and is working on a law that will force banks to make ATMs more available.

Impact on Local Residents

Residents of Nieuwendijk in North Brabant, for example, noticed what the poor service means in practice, where the local Geldmaat has been out of service seven times in recent weeks. The longest outage lasted 2 weeks. “He almost never does it,” says one resident. “So I drive to Almkerk, 6 kilometers away, for cash.”

Decline in Cash Usage

The use of cash is declining rapidly. Ten years ago, about half of all payments were made with cash. Last year this was only one in five payments. This year too, there will be more debit card payments. In the first half of the year, debit card payments were 8 percent more frequent than a year earlier.

Efforts to Address the Issues

“We are doing everything we can to keep the promise,” says Corstens van Geldmaat. According to her, there were an extra number of disruptions in September because there were problems with a specific part of some vending machines. That part was difficult to obtain and therefore malfunctions could not be resolved quickly. “Delivery times are long,” says Corstens. “This means that some vending machines are out of use for longer than desirable. We hope that the problems will be resolved within a few weeks.”

Supervisor’s Role

The Dutch Central Bank monitors whether banks comply with the agreements. The supervisor is aware of the problems, but says it can do no more than address the parties. The Dutch Central Bank has no authority to impose measures. “De Nederlandsche Bank knows how to make a critical note, but also understands the complexity we are dealing with,” says Corstens.

Data Collection Method

The NOS, together with regional broadcasters, collected data on 3,476 Geldmaat ATMs in September. Each machine was asked every hour whether it was in operation. This was combined with data about the opening hours of the location where the ATM is located. Based on this information, we calculated an average failure rate.