Barclays Bank is hoping to improve ATM security by launching a new nationwide contactless cash withdrawal service for mobile devices next year.
The new mobile cash service, said to be the UK’s first, is currently on trial in the North of England and will roll out to over 180 branches and 600 Barclays cash points in the New Year.
Customers simply tap their Android smartphone against the ATM contactless reader and then enter the PIN as normal on the machine keypad to withdraw. Or to speed things up further, they can pre-enter their PIN and withdrawal amount and select if they want a receipt on the Barclays Mobile Banking app.
They then have 30 seconds to tap the contactless ATM reader and the cash will be dispensed.
Withdrawal limits are currently set to £100, but Apple devices will not be able to use the service.
This is because the iPhone NFC chip is reserved solely for the use of Apple Pay – no third-party provider gets a look-in.
Barclays UK CEO, Ashok Vaswani, claimed in a statement that the new service would make customers’ lives easier and their finances more secure.
“Our customers now expect to be able to use their smartphone to make their everyday purchases. We want taking out cash to be just as easy,” he added.
“With Contactless Cash customers can quickly and securely take-out money with just a tap of their smartphone – a first for the UK.”
Cindy Provin, chief strategy officer at Thales e-Security, welcomed the latest innovation in payments.
“It’s encouraging to see the payments industry continue its commitment to embracing digitalization to improve efficiency of payments and further reduce the possibility of fraud with ATM withdrawals,” she said.
“However, with risks to mobile payments – such as malware already present on an end-user’s device – it is critical that security remains front of mind when developing such innovations.”
The new service will also work with contactless cards.