Thought this may be of interest ....CUS also covered in the Sept. edition of Smart Investor.
Cheers
SMH Revenue raiser By Elinore Martel August 19, 2009
ATM screens will soon be used for advertising space. People withdrawing cash from ATMs will soon be bombarded with ads as banks look for new ways to replace lost fee revenue. A British company is seeking to expand into Australia on the back of what it says are successful ad campaigns using ATMs. Its British campaign includes an English Pizza Hut chain using ATM screens to advertise its happy hour menu. Receipts give menu details and the address of the nearest restaurant. Even police have resorted to using ATM campaigns. Lincolnshire police signed up before last Christmas to deliver warnings about the cost of unruly behaviour. Australian consumer group Choice spokesman, Christopher Zinn, says ads on cash machines may not be a bad thing. "The advertising might be used to reduce the foreign ATM fee and drive competition in this area." New laws, introduced in March, force ATM owners to let customers know how much it will cost to use an ATM that does not belong to their bank (also known as "foreign" ATMs). At the time, Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens said the fees were not always properly disclosed and in many cases were higher than necessary. Under the new system, "There should be no 'foreign' fees of any significance. And competition will be maintained, by allowing the independent ATM owners to remain viable and new competitors to enter more easily," he said. According to Choice, there are about 26,500 ATMs in Australia, with just under half owned by banks. The rest are owned by building societies, credit unions and other independent companies running machines such as Cashconnect (Banktech Group), Kwik Cash (Chubb), rediATM (owned by credit unions), Cashcard (First Data), Customers and iCash. Since March, ATM owners have charged the user, instead of banks taking a cut. The transaction cost, usually $1.50 to $2, is displayed onscreen and users have the option not to proceed. Choice estimates the new rules will save customers about $200 million a year. Zinn says since the information has been made available customers have tried to avoid the charges: "It makes the point that it wasn't transparent. People never knew they were being charged." Another result of the new laws is the formation of partnerships, between banks and independent owners. NAB has just announced an agreement with Cuscal (which represents credit unions), the developer of the rediATM network, to share ATMs. NAB says about 7 million Australians will be able to use Cuscal's 1400 ATMs with NAB's 1700 machines, free of direct charge.
Zinn says it would be interesting to see how long people would stand in front of an ATM watching an ad. Steve Newton, Asia Pacific regional manager for i-design, the company behind the advertising, says the ads may be a way for banks to claw back losses: "Everyone has gone back to their own bank network, since direct charging came in ... revenue for the big banks has dropped significantly on foreign transactions," he says. Newton says banks have had to spend large amounts of money setting up their systems for direct charging but a positive spin-off is that ATMs are now technically set up to deliver advertising on a large, cost-effective scale. "We can send campaigns directly to the ATMs," he says. Advertisers will not be able to target customers based on income or any other details from bank accounts. But the ATMs can, however, be programmed to run advertisements at certain times of day and in specific locations. This might mean high-income customers could be targeted using ATMs in high-income areas. Global brands and government messages work best, says Newton, with fast food a more recent trend. For example, Coca-Cola recently used ATMs in its campaign to launch an Appletiser drink, with ATM customers getting a discount using their receipt.
CUS Price at posting:
$2.75 Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Not Held
