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Time to Cash In: Why Cash Recycling Makes (Dollars and) Sense for Today’s ATMs

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With all the talk about the “death of cash” it may surprise you to learn that more account holders use the ATM than any other banking channel.1 In fact, according to a study by J.D. Power, over half of consumers used an ATM or drive-thru to get cash in 2020.2 While the number of ATM transactions has declined over the past two years, the dollar amount of ATM withdrawals has grown, as has the frequency of cash deposits. This is because a significant portion of consumers still rely heavily on cash for day-to-day expenses. This is especially true for consumers in rural areas and those in lower income urban neighborhoods. It is also true of GenZ. GenZers prefer to use cash for in-person payments almost as much as they use P2P options like Venmo, and Cash App.3 Mobile payments and debit cards come second and third to physical currency as a preferred way to pay for this demographic group.4

In many cases, these vulnerable groups have seen the highest number of branch closures in their neighborhoods which frequently results in fewer ATMs and have been disproportionately affected by a lack of access to cash.

In support of consumers, there appears to be a grass-roots movement to protect cash as a payment instrument. Around the globe, various governments and industry groups are taking actions to preserve cash as payment instrument. The UK recently announced the new Financial Services and Markets Bill, which will ensure the continued availability of withdrawal and deposit facilities across the UK. Cash remains an important payment method for millions across the UK, particularly those in vulnerable groups, and the government’s action shows a commitment to preserving consumers access to it.5 The ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) is calling for universal cash deposit standards and processes. The European Central Bank (ECB) recently outlined its 2030 cash strategy to ensure that banknotes remain widely available and accepted as a competitive payment instrument that can be owned and used by all consumers in the European Union. In the U.S. there is currently no federal law that requires businesses to accept cash, but more than half of all states have passed legislation that outlaws the discrimination of cash buyers by preventing businesses from requiring credit payment.6 Just last month, the U.S. Congress passed the Payment Choice Act, intended to ensure continued acceptance of cash as a payment option for consumers throughout our nation. The bill requires all brick-and-mortar retail businesses to continue allowing consumers to pay with cash for purchases of goods and services up to $2,000. The bill still must pass in the U.S. Senate to become law.7

It’s good for the customer experience

These factors are important considerations for financial institutions as they work to implement services that meet the needs of these communities in the most efficient way possible. By adding cash recycling to a portion of a bank’s ATM fleet financial institutions can provide the needed services while realizing multiple benefits such as reducing ATM operating costs, facilitating multi-denomination capabilities, reducing customer wait times (by migrating transactions such as cash deposits from tellers to the ATM), and freeing up bank staff to perform other relationship building functions.

As branch closures expand, ATMs with cash recycling capabilities and 24/7 availability can play a vital role in providing continued services for small to medium merchant accounts who handle a large volume of cash payments. In the absence of a nearby open branch, an ATM with cash recycling capabilities can allow these valued accounts to make cash deposits when it is most convenient for the merchant regardless of branch hours. These businesses also appreciate that there’s no delay in crediting their accounts for deposits made at recycling ATMs. Making it easy and cost effective for merchants to deposit cash regularly can also serve to encourage merchants to continue to accept cash payments at their business.

It’s good for increasing efficiency and reducing CIT costs

When it comes to ATM fleet management and costs, CIT services are often the greatest expense that banks incur. Maximizing efficiency is crucial to optimize operating costs in today’s environment. By implementing cash recycling, the frequency of CIT visits can be significantly reduced resulting in a substantial savings for CIT fees. Additionally, automated cash recycling is less likely to induce loading errors that can occur with manual CIT cash loads, reducing downtime. With proper cash withdrawal/deposit analysis and planning, cash recycling can help to ensure plentiful cash levels at the ATM– reducing the incidence of out-of-service events while avoiding replenishing low volume locations too frequently and serve to improve overall customer satisfaction with the self-service channel.

It’s good for the environment

An added benefit of cash recycling ATMs is that it is a greener, more sustainable business practice. Recycling ATMs can increase financial inclusion by ensuring cash and other banking services are easily accessible in areas with few or no bank branches. And reducing the number of CIT visits and potentially reducing the number of service calls can mean lower carbon emissions directly related to ATM fleet operations. Overall, it’s a win-win-win for financial institutions, customers, and the environment.

Long Live Cash and the ATM!

We believe the rumors of the death of cash have been exaggerated. As branch closures continue to accelerate, ATMs can fill the financial services void these closures create, ensuring communities have access to cash as well as a host of other vital products and services, at a cost much lower than the cost of a traditional branch location.

Teresa Barry is Global Product Marketing Manager for Euronet’s Self Service Banking Solutions. Prior to joining Euronet in 2015 Teresa has worked for more than 20 years in software product development and marketing, with a focus on customer/user experience. ​

Bitcoin and Stablecoins The Future of Everyday Money

When Bitcoin first emerged, the idea was simple: let anyone, anywhere, send money across the world without friction, delays, or middlemen. Over time, though, Bitcoin

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When Bitcoin first emerged, the idea was simple: let anyone, anywhere, send money across the world without friction, delays, or middlemen. Over time, though, Bitcoin drifted into a different role. Instead of becoming everyday “internet cash,” it evolved into a digital store of value – something people invest in or hold long-term, not something they use to buy groceries or send remittances.

Bitcoin’s Strengths and Limits
Bitcoin is independent, scarce, and transparent – qualities people genuinely value. But those strengths don’t translate to daily money movement. Price swings make it tough to use for salaries or remittances, and the network isn’t designed to move thousands of small payments quickly and cheaply. It’s a great asset, but not a great everyday currency.

Stablecoins: Designed for Everyday Payments
Stablecoins were created to handle exactly what Bitcoin doesn’t. Because they’re pegged to regular currencies like the U.S. dollar, they offer price stability, faster cross-border settlement, programmable payment logic, and easy integration with wallets and mobile money. That combination makes them far more realistic for remittances, merchant payouts, and small daily transactions – no exchange-rate guesswork, no volatility surprises.
Why Stablecoins Matter Globally

In much of the world, especially in underbanked regions, people juggle multiple disconnected payment systems just to move money. Stablecoins add a digital middle layer that ties those systems together. They don’t replace local currency, cards, or bank transfers – they help everything move faster, more consistently, and more affordably. Users don’t even need to know a transaction touched a stablecoin. They just experience lower fees and faster delivery.

A Layered Financial Future
This isn’t Bitcoin vs. stablecoins vs. traditional finance. We’re heading toward a layered system: Bitcoin as a macro-level digital asset, stablecoins powering everyday payments, and banks and fintechs plugging these new rails into existing ones.

That’s where Euronet fits in. With remittances, ATM networks, and instant payments already in our DNA, platforms like Ren and ITM are positioned to bridge the new digital layer with the infrastructure processing billions of transactions today – making the world’s money move the way people actually need it to.

From Payment Silos to Payment Platforms Orchestration Is the New Architecture

The Cost of Decades of Bolted-On Rails For decades, banks expanded payments one rail at a time. Cards, ACH, wires, real-time payments, and cross-border flows

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The Cost of Decades of Bolted-On Rails
For decades, banks expanded payments one rail at a time. Cards, ACH, wires, real-time payments, and cross-border flows were added to meet specific needs, often on isolated systems managed by separate teams. Over time, this created environments that move money effectively but struggle to evolve.

These silos make it harder to launch new services, apply uniform controls, and gain an integrated operational view. Each new rail introduces another integration, its own rules, and additional complexity. As a result, innovation slows, costs rise, and the architecture itself becomes more fragile.

From Fragmented Stacks to Orchestrated Platforms
To address these limitations, institutions are shifting from fragmented payment stacks to orchestrated payment platforms that unify architecture and support sustainable growth.

A modern payment platform stands out not by the rails it supports, but by how it orchestrates them. Orchestration serves as a centralized control layer across all payment flows, bringing together:
• Routing and transaction decisioning
• Compliance and controls
• Message management and enrichment
• Monitoring, visibility, and exception handling

Why Orchestration Changes How Banks Scale
This architectural shift changes how banks scale. New rails connect to an existing framework rather than standing alone. Core capabilities don’t need to be rebuilt with every expansion. The result is faster service launches, stronger governance, and clearer operational insight.

How Ren Puts This into Practice
At Euronet Software, this principle drives the Ren platform. Ren is an orchestration layer that connects to existing cores, processors, and networks while coordinating transactions across card, account-to-account, and cross-border channels. Institutions can modernize incrementally and manage payments as a unified platform rather than a collection of silos.

As rails multiply, orchestration is what enables sustainable scaling.

Agentic Payments Are Coming And the shift is bigger than you think

There’s a moment in every technology cycle when something stops being a demo and starts being a default. We’re approaching that moment with AI agents

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There’s a moment in every technology cycle when something stops being a demo and starts being a default. We’re approaching that moment with AI agents and payments — and most people, even those of us in this industry, are underestimating how different it’s going to feel when it arrives.

The Loop We’ve Stopped Noticing
Right now, booking a flight means opening a browser, searching options, picking one, entering payment details, and hitting confirm. You’re in the loop at every step. That loop is so familiar most of us don’t notice it’s there. But it’s about to change.

From Assistants to Agents
AI agents – software that can reason, take actions, and complete multi-step tasks on your behalf – are beginning to operate inside payment systems in ways that go well beyond remembering your card number. Imagine telling an agent, “Find a lawn service for next Tuesday, book the best-rated option under $80, and pay for it,” and having it actually happen. It’s not science fiction. Pilots are underway overseas right now.

The Real Challenge Is Trust, not Intelligence
What makes this moment different from years of “AI will transform banking” predictions is that the hard part isn’t the intelligence anymore. It’s the trust architecture.

When an AI acts on your behalf financially, three things have to be true: you explicitly authorized what it did, the authentication is airtight, and there’s a clear, auditable record of exactly what you approved. If you said “book a flight under $400,” the system has to prove it honored that constraint, exactly. That’s what separates a useful agent from a liability.

A Time-Return Story
The underlying question is whether people can trust an entity to act on their behalf with their money. That’s reasonable – and the answer is getting closer to yes. When it tips, it won’t tip slowly.

The shift isn’t from cash to digital or cards to mobile. It’s from making payments to having them handled intelligently, verifiably, and on terms you actually set. That’s a bigger deal than most people realize yet.

Embedded Finance: A New Opportunity for Banks and Merchants

Embedded finance is changing how the world interacts with money. Instead of banking being a separate destination, financial services are becoming integrated directly into the

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Embedded finance is changing how the world interacts with money. Instead of banking being a separate destination, financial services are becoming integrated directly into the digital platforms people already use – ride-sharing apps, shopping sites, B2B marketplaces, even software used to run a business. For banks and merchants alike, this shift is an opportunity.

For banks, embedded finance offers a new distribution model. Rather than compete head-to-head with FinTechs or wait for customers to log into a bank-branded app, banks can meet customers where they already are – in the apps and tools they use every day. It’s a way to unlock growth through partnerships, without requiring a total overhaul of legacy systems. Mid-tier and regional banks, in particular, can participate by offering APIs, issuing cards, enabling real-time payments, or even sponsoring fintech programs.

For merchants and platforms, embedding financial services can open new revenue streams, improve customer retention, and make user experiences more seamless. Offering point-of-sale lending, business checking, or split payments – all happening inside the customer journey – can differentiate a product and increase wallet share.

At Euronet Software, we see our role as the connective layer – the platform between banks and the new digital economy. With decades of experience in switching, acquiring, issuing, and cross-border payments, we have the technology,
the reach, and the regulatory expertise to help financial institutions plug in and scale embedded finance offerings. Our Ren platform seamlessly connects legacy systems to modern standards, such as ISO 20022 . And as we look forward, we’re building a suite of capabilities that allow both banks and merchants to participate in the next wave of financial innovation.

Let’s build what’s next – together.

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