IBS Journal February 2015


IBS Interview: Marcel Leeflang, head of payments, cash & cards, ABN Amro


As the three large Dutch banks move towards placing the management of their ATMs into a new subsidiary, IBS talks to ABN Amro’s head of payments, cash and cards, Marcel Leeflang, about the development.


In some countries, the ATM remains in vogue. Banks are seeking to push more transaction types onto the self-service device, to use it for cross-marketing, and to add interactive features, such as video. At the other end of the spectrum, there is a country such as the Netherlands. Here, the use of cash is in steep decline and, as a result, the ATM is no longer viewed as stra- tegic by the banks, with mobile payments the focus, not cash. That shift in the Netherlands has man-


ifested itself in the creation of Geldservice Nederland (GSN), a subsidiary that is jointly owned by ABN Amro, ING and Rabobank. In 50 square metres, you might have three or four banks’ ATMs, each with a different service contract, says Leeflang. Some time ago, the large Dutch banks looked at whether they could find a better solution. In many ways, the move to GSN is


less of a leap for ABN Amro than for the other two banks as it has outsourced the management of its ATMs for years. It is one of the small number of flagship ATM man- aged services customers of Wincor Nixdorf. This, in itself, was something of a culture change, as banks are used to playing this role themselves, working with a wide range of providers to load, clean, maintain and upgrade their machines. ‘We asked, what’s really our core business,’ says Leeflang. On a phased basis, the management


of the network was moved over to Wincor Nixdorf, which in turn managed the con- tractor base for the machines. This supplier was the one in the market that was felt to have the capability and willingness to take on the business, says Leeflang. ‘It was an adventure for both of us and of course there were some hiccups, but in the end it went smoothly.’ ABN Amro’s own small cash and cards team became focused on


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‘Don’t tell my marketing colleagues, but in my opinion there are no cross-marketing opportunities. If you are standing at an ATM, you are only there for one reason. You will only read a message if you are bored because the


transaction is taking too long.’ Marcel Leeflang, ABN Amro


contract management. It was still a wrench for some in the


bank to let go of an area that was seen as key for the retail and commercial banking operations. ‘For a branch, if an ATM is down, then it is a really bad day,’ says Leeflang, as it has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. The cash management and servicing activities were the first to be outsourced, then the rest of the associated tasks. When ABN Amro merged with Fortis, the latter’s ATM network was also moved across into the Wincor Nixdorf contract. In total, the bank now has around 1700 ATMs, with multiple vendors but with a gradual trend towards fewer and newer types of machines. All of them are now on Windows 7, with the migration from XP completed recently. Among the areas of focus within the


new way of working were aspects such as better cash management, aligned to the actual demand and taking into account aspects such as peaks at the end of month, holiday periods and local festivals. This is where there is particular scope for cost saving, because there is a lot of expense


© IBS Intelligence 2015 www.ibsintelligence.com


associated with sending out armoured trucks to fill the machines. The collection of lost debit cards is also expensive but if you don’t collect them for a week then this impacts customer service. ‘It is a balance between efficiency and service.’ ABN Amro’s number of ATMs has been declining and this will continue. The uptake of internet and mobile banking is so high in the Netherlands that the use of cash has seen a steep drop and it is the clear strategy of the banks to continue in this direction. ‘We love debit cards in the Netherlands. Contactless, both debit cards and mobile, is the future,’ says Leeflang. It is not only cash that is a casualty but also electronic wallets. These were once seen as the way forward but are now being phased out. There are also no plans, unlike in other countries, to do things such as integrate mobile devices with ATMs. The expectation is that it will be ‘tap


and go’ using NFC for smaller payments, PIN for larger amounts. A successful cross- bank pilot in the university city of Leiden with NFC will now be rolled out across the country.


interview: abn amro


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