Cardless ATM Withdrawals via Apple Pay Coming Soon

According to a report that was published by TechCrunch last year, engineers from two of the nation’s largest financial institutions have been assigned the task of equipping select ATM consoles with the ability to carry out NFC-based cardless transactions.

“We’ve been working on the technology that allows us to hook to digital wallets, leveraging NFC on mobile phones to replace the card at the transaction at the ATM,” said Jonathan Velline, head of ATMs at Wells Fargo, adding that while several thousand of his bank’s ATMs have thus far ben outfitted with Android Pay compatibility, workers would continue implementing other forms of NFC-based solutions, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Wells Fargo Wallet.

At the time, TechCrunch also reported that it was able to confirm the identity of “at least one” Engineer, who, as a self-identified Bank of America employee, suggested that the functionality would also be coming to Bank of America ATMs as well.

“We already have a number of mobile wallet programs,” said Betty Riess, Bank of America’s press representative for Consumer Banking Products, when pressed for further detail by TechCrunch’s Josh Constine.

Given that Apple Pay is among the most widely used and widely accepted mobile payment solutions on the market, it would be hard to believe that Bank of America wouldn’t be jumping on board with Wells Fargo in reinventing its ATM infrastructure, too.

Wells Fargo will soon take its first major step in the right direction of enhancing its customers’ experience at the ATM. According to 9to5Mac, the bank will very soon begin rolling out a new “smartphone-based ATM withdrawals” option at select ATMs; and though the feature works in a somewhat confusing manner, requiring that users log in to the Wells Fargo app on their smartphone, request a one-time 8-digit access code, and then enter that code at the ATM to initiate their transaction, it’s certainly a viable precursor to what the company is currently working hard to roll out later this year.

From at least 5,000 of Wells Fargo’s 13,000 in-network ATMs, tech-savvy customers will soon be able to access their cash quicker than ever before, thanks to the implementation of Apple Pay-compatible, NFC-based terminals that will be installed on the machines by the end of the year.

“Customers will be able to initiate a cardless ATM transaction with the ‘tap and pay’ technology in an NFC-enabled smartphone. When this feature is live, a customer will be able to initiate a transaction by signing into a leading mobile wallet, and holding the phone near an NFC-enabled ATM terminal. Once authenticated, the customer will input their debit or ATM card PIN and complete their transaction.” 

There’s currently no official word on when or where these NFC-equipped terminals will be rolling out, but only that they will be coming to select ATMs later on this year.