Why the ATM Still Matters in a Supposedly Cashless World
I've heard predictions about a fully cashless future more times than I can count — and year after year, the reality on the ground tells a more nuanced story. Cash still represents a material share of point-of-sale transactions globally. What's changed isn't the relevance of ATMs. It's how they're built and managed.
Early in my career, I managed a small network of ATMs. Since then, I've heard predictions about a fully cashless future more times than I can count — and year after year, the reality on the ground tells a more nuanced story.
The data supports that view. According to the Bank for International Settlements (Red Book 2024/25), cash still represents a material share of point-of-sale transactions globally and remains a critical backup payment method, even in advanced economies. Central banks continue to emphasize the importance of maintaining access to cash infrastructure as part of broader financial stability and resilience planning. The World Bank Global Findex 2025 reports that approximately 1.3 billion adults worldwide remain unbanked, with many more underbanked — reinforcing why physical access points like ATMs remain essential for financial inclusion, liquidity, and everyday commerce.
From an infrastructure perspective, the ATM Industry Association points to roughly 2.9 to 3.0 million ATMs globally as of 2024 — a scale that reflects the continued reliance on ATMs as one of the most widely used self-service banking channels. They provide 24/7 access, operational continuity during disruptions, and increasingly, digital-adjacent services that extend well beyond simple cash withdrawal. What has changed since my early days isn't the relevance of ATMs. It's how they're built and managed.
The shift to software-defined platforms
The industry is shifting toward software-defined, centrally managed ATM platforms — enabling faster change management, enhanced operational visibility, stronger security, reduced operational friction, and more efficient fleet management across large, distributed environments. This modernization reflects a broader trend happening across financial infrastructure: the movement from fragmented hardware-centric systems toward centrally orchestrated software-defined environments.
The ATM is no longer simply a cash machine. It increasingly operates as a resilience layer, a continuity channel, a financial access point, and a programmable self-service banking platform — closer in architecture to modern digital systems than to the standalone hardware terminals it physically resembles.
This evolution is closely aligned with our focus at Ren Payments, part of Euronet, helping financial institutions modernize the ATM channel while preserving scale, resilience, visibility, and operational control. I'm looking forward to continuing this conversation at ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) 2026, including our session: "A Major U.S. Bank's Journey to a Modern Self-Service Channel." The discussion will focus on how large financial institutions are evolving the ATM channel to improve agility, transparency, operational efficiency, centralized management, and long-term infrastructure resilience.
The broader lesson is that predictions about technology replacement are often too simplistic. In payments infrastructure, systems rarely disappear overnight. They evolve, integrate, modernize, and continue serving critical functions within a much larger ecosystem. The ATM remains one of the clearest examples of that reality.
Cash infrastructure isn't legacy technology waiting to be replaced. It's a resilience layer that becomes more valuable precisely when digital systems fail.
Franco Di Pietro
The Payments Corner
30+ years across payments, fintech, banking, and financial infrastructure. Operator-level perspectives on the systems that move money.
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