IT 
ES 
More people in the UK are paying with cash to help them manage their budgets. With Nationwide recently reporting that cash usage had increased for a third year in a row, it is a sharp reversion of the trend towards the cashless society predicted during the pandemic when people preferred contactless payments.
Banks must make sure that ATM networks are supplied with the cash that customers need. However, doing so means managing the logistics to deliver the cash, insurance costs, and the cost of cash itself. At the same time, we have seen a significant reduction in the number of bank branches in the UK, so ATMs have become the sole touch point for physical access to cash services.
Banks are turning to automated cash recycling technology to make sure that customers can withdraw their money from ATMs, and at the same time are driving efficiencies in their operations. Cash recycling refers to the process whereby cash deposited into an ATM is reused for withdrawals by other customers. This avoids the need for the cash to be collected, processed, and redistributed by financial services organisations, whilst also ensuring that customers have access to their money when they need it. In this way, customers will no longer need to wait in queues at a bank to for cash, they can access it easily from an ATM. This gives customers a more consistent service quality and guaranteed access to cash from ATMs whenever they need.
These automated cash recycling systems can come in the form of ATMs integrated with this technology or a stand-alone cash-recycling unit. For example, in the UK, supermarkets with ATMs could have local recycling systems due to the heavy foot traffic, and the likelihood of using cash to pay. As such, these locations act as both collectors and distributors of cash, creating opportunities for more efficient cash management.
Driving cost savings with cash recycling
2025 will see the continuation of more endpoints that support cash recycling. These machines are much more sophisticated than simply managing cash in and cash out, ensuring that cash is stored securely, that it is accurately tracked, and automating the cash cycle. Thanks to these capabilities, self-service endpoints are able to handle easier and low-cost transactions, saving the time of tellers in banks. This will enable them to focus their efforts on delivering proactive, personalised and best-in-class services for customers.
With cash recycling, financial services organisations are also driving down Cash-in-Transit (CIT) and insurance costs, due to the need for less visits to top up ATMs, because of automated cash recycling. Using cash recycling machines, CIT visits could decrease by 156 per year, and the need to replace cash cassettes is estimated to decline by 75 percent. Not only does this lead to great cost savings for banks, but it also drives Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) benefits by cutting the carbon emissions associated with deliveries.
Simplifying cash recycling with the right partner
When deploying new cash recycling machines, or integrating this device into existing networks, banks should seek out a partner to create efficiencies around how these machines are managed and maintained. Through a strategic partnership, financial services organisations can streamline the costs associated with cash recycling, including management, security, compliance, the cost of the cash itself and the maintenance of the endpoints.
As customers demand access to physical cash, banks are using sophisticated ATMs to automate cash recycling and reduce the cost of doing so. As the financial services landscape continues to evolve and banks will have to be adaptable in the services they offer in response to customer behaviour. Strategic partnerships with providers of automated cash recycling solutions offer banks an affordable solution for them and their customers by making their operations more efficient.
