Cardtronics and Info Touch announce hybrid kiosk-ATM

In the world of financial transaction processing, this kind of union just makes sense. After all, what's an ATM other than a really locked-down (I hope) kiosk with a cash dispenser? From the press release,

Cardtronics Inc. and Info Touch Technologies Corp. are expected to introduce a hybrid ATM this spring that combines traditional cash dispense with cash acceptance. According to a news release, in addition to making a spring pilot program in select U.S. markets, a total managed solution that includes hardware, software and administration services also will be offered.

This initiative allows merchants to offer a broad range of financial services, without requiring any additional staffing or dedicated floor space beyond what is typically needed for an ATM. A few of the available services include bill payment, wireless phone top-ups, long distance, mobile content and other PIN-based products, gift card purchases, stored-value card dispensing and stored-value card reloading.

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Cardtronics will own and operate the new hybrid ATMs; Info Touch will provide processing services for all services beyond cash dispensing.

The other thing that I thought was neat is that these ATMs will be branded with InfoTouch's TIO logo, and effectively will be part of the TIO network, which already has a good foothold (and some brand recognition) with the unbanked population.