The Dundee research and development arm of ATM manufacturer NCR received a major boost on Friday after landing a £30 million order to supply next-generation cash machines to RBS.
In his first major public speech at the Business in Parliament event at Holyrood, the taxpayer-owned bank’s new chief executive Ross McEwan confirmed RBS was working with the American technology firm’s Wester Gourdie industrial estate-based Centre of Excellence on the design of the new ATMs.
The contract runs through to 2016 and will see NCR supply and install more than 2,000 SelfServ ATM units at locations across the UK.
“The Royal Bank of Scotland will be investing £30 million on deploying a new generation of NCR cash machines which will give customers a much broader range of everyday banking facilities where and when they want them,” Mr McEwan told around 200 business leaders gathered at the Scottish Parliament.
“The team at NCR’s Dundee Centre of Excellence has led NCR’s involvement, working closely with our own technology team to ensure that we deliver state-of the-art equipment to convenient locations for our customers the length and breadth of the UK.
NCR has a history in Dundee stretching back more than 60 years, but the R&D facility at Wester Gourdie is the last remaining vestige of what was once one of the city’s principal employers.
Accounts for the division recently published at Companies House show that in 2012 the company employed an average of 533 staff in Dundee, more than 300 of which were engaged in engineering roles and a further 66 in manufacturing. Turnover at the unit topped £51.8m in 2012, returning a pre-tax profit of £3.6m.
Aside from the R&D work, the new partnership between NCR and RBS has also led to the establishment of an innovative new business zone in the bank’s High Street office in Dundee.
The area houses the UK’s first ever ATM unit featuring a scalable deposit module a system that makes banking more efficient by allowing customers to make mixed cash and cheque deposits in a single transaction.
The zone also allows business users to exchange bulk coin deposits for easier-to-handle coin rolls, again a first for the UK.
NCR said a large percentage of the new ATMs being delivered to RBS would be cash and cheque deposit enabled machines, which it said would assist the bank in its quest to meet the demands of its increasingly tech-savvy customer base while also delivering operational efficiencies.
“Retail banking combines people, technology, and distribution to provide speed and convenience for consumers while unleashing efficiencies for banks,” said Andy Heyman, senior vice-president, NCR Financial Services.
“The industry is in the midst of a transformation. Many of our customers large and small launched significant programs over the last 18 months including RBS, who we are proud to consider a partner.
“We are pleased to be working with them on delivering convenient services for their customers, as they seek to transform their business, provide their customers with a great experience, and grow their brand.”