(21 October 2005 – Australia) BankWest has inked a deal with convenience store franchise 7-Eleven to install a fleet of ATMs in stores on Australia’s eastern seaboard.BankWest will begin rolling out its branded ATMs in more than 350 stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane from January next year.
HBOS Australia Retail chief executive Chris Whitehead said the new fleet would add to the 260 ATMs the bank was already operating in Western Australia and provide another non branch distribution channel alongside the internet and telephone.
“Importantly, it gives us a cost effective platform to launch additional card based transactional products in the future, strongly positioning us for further growth,” he said.
Whitehead said the ATMs would greatly increase the BankWest brand and presence and would provide access to more than half a million non BankWest customers a month.
In September, BankWest struck an alliance with payments solution company First Data to deliver merchant acquiring services, a move that gave the bank a transaction banking foothold on the east coast.
First Data will provide the ATM services.
Whitehead acknowledged that a traditional bricks and mortar presence was also important as the bank grows its business on the east coast and said it would open more branches and business centres before the end of the year.