KAL unveils cashless ATM

Image via Self Service World

"The RTM does a deposit transaction and puts money directly into the retailer's bank account," he said. "So 'Steve' goes in to the RTM, does a $100 transaction; money comes out of Steve's account and it goes into the acquirer bank's account. Simultaneously, the acquiring bank puts money into the retailer's bank account." ...The RTM can even offer video conferencing with a teller using the unit's 17-inch onboard liquid crystal display or an attached video topper, Korala said. And because it runs on the same KAL software that runs ATMs, the RTM interfaces with the bank's network like any other machine.

The RTM was conceived by KAL as a means for banks to expand their footprint across a geographic area simply, rapidly and at significantly less cost than with a fleet of ATMs — to be exact, Korala said, at one-tenth the typical cost of operating an ATM for a year.

Initially, KAL expected the RTM to generate the most interest in developing countries such as India and China, where governments are pushing hard to move banking services into un- and underbanked areas. And while this has been true, Korala said, the RTM also has excited interest in developed countries where banks see it as a potential difference-maker in a very competitive marketplace.

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Though the RTM is something of a departure for KAL, it doesn't mean the 23-year-old software company is suddenly "changing its spots," Korala said. "[W]e've got a patent on this [globally] and we are going to license the patent as well as the hardware design … and we've decided that we need to build our own RTMs to begin with at least to make sure that we seed the market. But we're not going to become like NCR and Diebold; we're going to license it to anyone who wants to build it."" via Self Service World