General
General Development of the Business
NCR Atleos Corporation (“Atleos,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) is an industry-leading financial technology company providing self-directed banking solutions to a global customer base including financial institutions, retailers and consumers. Self-directed banking is a growing, secular trend that allows banking customers to complete transactions seamlessly between various channels. Our comprehensive solutions enable the acceleration of self-directed banking through automated teller machine (“ATM”) and interactive teller machine (“ITM”) technology, including software, services, hardware and our proprietary Allpoint network. While we provide all our solutions on a modular basis, we have also assembled these capabilities into a turnkey, end-to-end platform which we have branded “ATM as a Service.” On October 16, 2023, we completed our Separation from NCR Corporation (now known as NCR Voyix Corporation or “Voyix” and referred to as “NCR” prior to the Separation) and launched as an independent publicly-traded company. Additional information about the Separation can be found in Note 1, “Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies”, in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
As ATM technology has evolved in recent years, the substantial majority of banking transactions can now be completed at the ATM, including cash deposits, withdrawals and other account services, as well as the origination of payments transactions such as bill payments and money transfer. In addition, the development of ITMs, that utilize remote bank employees to provide customer support and servicing via interactive video, enable customers to complete more complex transactions such as account opening, card issuance and replacement and loan applications. We believe that ATMs and ITMs are increasingly the delivery channel of choice where transactions cannot be completed digitally, and for this reason, are critical to a broader strategy to provide convenient access for consumers.
The secular nature of the growth in self-directed banking is in large part responsive to how financial institutions interact with their customers and the ensuing implications to the traditional branch banking operational model. With retail banking customers increasingly receptive to engagement outside the traditional branch banking environment, financial institutions are investing in non-branch channels to foster enhanced engagement with their customers. As such, ATMs and ITMs represent an increasing share of transactions relative to the legacy branch infrastructure.
These shifts in engagement have meaningful operating implications, particularly in the face of sustained margin pressure across the banking industry. We believe that self-service banking capabilities, and self-directed banking more broadly, represent an opportunity for financial institutions to rationalize legacy branch networks and instead invest in omni-channel engagement models, often in partnership with third party providers as part of a comprehensive and more cost-effective solution.
Our solutions are designed to enable the acceleration of digital transformation through software, services, and hardware, creating meaningful operating efficiencies while offering differentiated user experiences to their end consumers. ATM and ITM channels allow financial institutions to transform the traditional branch banking model and offer a more robust, efficient, and convenient banking experience to their customers.
Our solutions also offer distinct and powerful advantages to retailers and consumers. Through our ATMs and ITMs, retailers can create everyday banking destinations within their store footprints, driving new and repeat foot traffic and increased in-store spending while reducing the high labor costs associated with maintaining in-store financial services desks. Consumers benefit from increased convenience and connectivity through proximity to our network of approximately 83,000 self-service banking terminal locations, including the Allpoint network, which we believe is the largest retail surcharge-free independent network of ATMs in the U.S.
We believe our comprehensive capabilities differentiate us in the marketplace for self-directed banking technology. Historically, banks and retailers would negotiate with a wide array of third-party technology and service providers, pairing disparate systems with internally developed technologies to assemble a disjointed self-directed banking offering. Our customers, in contrast, benefit from a comprehensive outsourced solution to a single vendor, improving the functionality and availability of a self-directed banking network and the predictability of the cost to operate.
Given the demands of our customers, we are continuing our transition to software-led solutions. Today, our software platform, which runs in the cloud and includes microservices and application programming interfaces (“APIs”) that integrate with our
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customers’ systems, and our ATM as a Service solutions, bring together all our capabilities and competencies to power the technology to run our customers’ self-directed banking networks, at the same time allowing us to earn a greater proportion of recurring revenues.
We have grown organically, as well as through acquisitions, to add software, services and other capabilities that complement or enhance our existing portfolio. In 2021, we completed the acquisition of Cardtronics plc (“Cardtronics”) to accelerate our ATM as a Service strategy, adding the Allpoint network to our suite of financial institution and retailer-focused payment technologies. We intend to continue pursuing opportunities to win new customers, expand our footprint and drive more transactions and foot traffic for our customers.
By delivering mission-critical solutions to a durable customer base under long term contracts, we generate diversified and largely recurring revenues across contracted software, services and predictable transactional revenue streams. We believe our scale, operational expertise and efficient use of capital, as a percentage of revenues, allows us to deliver meaningful free cash flows, with opportunities for further expansion as we pursue our growth objectives, undertake strategic acquisitions and return capital to our shareholders.
NCR Atleos Corporation’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trades under the symbol “NATL.”
Operating Segments
We manage our operations in the following segments: Self-Service Banking, Network, and Telecommunications & Technology (“T&T”).
•Self-Service Banking - Offers solutions to enable customers in the financial services industry to reduce costs, generate new revenue streams and enhance customer loyalty. These solutions include a comprehensive line of ATM hardware and software, and related installation, maintenance, and managed and professional services. We also offer solutions to manage and run the ATM channel end-to-end for financial institutions that include back office, cash management, software management and ATM deployment, among others.
•Network - Provides a cost-effective way for financial institutions, fintechs, neobanks, and retailers to reach and serve their customers through our network of ATMs and multi-functioning financial services kiosks. We offer credit unions, banks, digital banks, fintechs, stored-value debit card issuers, and other consumer financial services providers access to our ATM network, including our proprietary Allpoint network, providing convenient and fee-free cash withdrawal and deposit access to their customers and cardholders as well as the ability to convert a digital value to cash, or vice versa, via ReadyCode (formerly Pay360). We also provide ATM branding solutions to financial institutions, ATM management and services to retailers and other businesses, and our LibertyX business gives consumers the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin.
•T&T - Offers managed network and infrastructure services to enterprise clients across all industries via direct relationships with communications service providers and technology manufacturers. Our customers rely on us as a strategic partner to help them reduce complexity, improve cost efficiency, and enable global geographical reach. We deliver expert professional, field, and remote services for modern network technologies including Software-Defined Wide Area Networking, Network Functions Virtualization, Wireless Local Area Networks, Optical Networking, and Edge Networks.
Our Strategy
Our business strategy and growth roadmap is defined by the following:
•Increase transaction levels at existing locations: We believe there are opportunities to increase the number of transactions that occur at our existing ATM locations. In addition to our current initiatives that tend to drive additional transaction volumes to our ATMs, such as bank-branding and network-branding, we have developed and are continuing to develop new initiatives to drive incremental transactions to our existing ATM locations. These initiatives may include incentives to cardholders, such as coupons and rewards, which incentivize customers to visit our ATMs. We also continue to invest in data analytics to better understand our ATM usage patterns to help us identify growth opportunities.
•Win more customers and expand our footprint: We have a long history and association with branch transformation through generations of products and thousands of customers, many of whom we have served for decades. We will continue to invest in the sales and customer success teams required to win and retain new customers and expand our ATM footprint with both retailers and banks. Our targeted customer acquisition strategy varies by customer type:
◦Retail: We believe the retail channel is substantially underpenetrated and an actionable opportunity to grow our network. The value proposition through retail partnerships is multi-faceted, most importantly driving increased
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foot traffic and sales velocity. We are investing in initiatives to more proactively help drive traffic and marketing for our retail partners, by for instance drawing cardholders to retail ATM locations in exchange for incentives and other retail offers.
◦Bank: We will continue to invest in winning more banks and credit unions, primarily seeking to deploy our ATM as a Service model but also traditional company- and bank-owned models. Critically, we will continue to invest in our value proposition, ensuring that we allow our financial institution customers to offer a premier end-consumer experience at a material savings as compared to an internally developed ATM network.
•Invest in the FinTech channel: We intend to invest to expand relationships with fintechs and card issuers, such as reloadable stored-value debit card issuers, digital-only balances held by consumers, and alternative payment networks, which are seeking an extensive and convenient ATM network to complement their card offerings and electronic-based accounts. Many leading fintechs and challenger digital banks and providers of consumer financial services that lack a physical branch or ATM network of their own have partnered with us to provide their customers with convenient and surcharge-free access to ATM services. We have seen strong transaction growth with this customer type, as many of these businesses promote the convenience of our Allpoint network as a value point to their customers and an integral part of their solution.
•Shift traditional ATM business to recurring ATM as a Service model: We intend to continue investing to win new ATM as a Service customers as well as convert existing customers operating under a traditional model. We estimate that the contractual ATM as a Service model doubles recurring revenue as compared to a traditional ATM hardware and maintenance contract of comparable size, expanding our total addressable market. This is because historically certain of our customers would purchase some of the components that make up our ATM as a Service offering from third-parties. By combining all of these components into one ATM as a Service offering, the Company expects to expand its opportunities and expects to capture additional revenues. With an as a service model, we have an opportunity to win incremental market share by improving the utility of our customers’ self-directed banking solutions, driving retention.
•Grow the Allpoint network: As banks reduce physical footprints and digitize existing branches, and credit unions seek to expand with limited physical points of presence, our value proposition is only magnified, and our sales pipeline reflects this secular trend. We will continue to invest in bringing financial institutions and retailers to the Allpoint network to drive high margin incremental transaction volumes while allowing us to continue to re-invest in expanding and improving the network, reinforcing our competitive advantage. We believe the addition of deposit accepting functionality in the Allpoint network significantly expands the value proposition to our customers, allowing them to offer near branch functionality in secure convenient retail locations that their customers are in every day.
•Expand Total Addressable Market through product development: We see an opportunity to expand our addressable market by extending the breadth of our capabilities. For example, we are investing to introduce cashless card access and Bitcoin capabilities, extending ATM capabilities beyond cash access and balance inquiries. As another example, we are introducing cash deposit functionality specifically targeting retailers executing prepaid reloads, billpay and other cash-to-card consumer transactions which generate substantial daily cash balances.
•International Expansion: We intend to continue investing in international expansion. As of December 31, 2023, we have ATM networks in 11 countries and service ATMs in 60 countries and, in 2023, we generated 55% of our revenue outside of the United States. We will focus our expansion and investment on high cash jurisdictions, such as Greece and other European Union countries and beyond, where we believe we have an opportunity to build Allpoint-like networks in partnership with broader, country-level banking systems.
•Select M&A: Leveraging M&A execution and implementation experiences built at NCR, we intend to continue to complement and accelerate our organic growth strategies through acquisitions. As historical operating businesses within NCR Corporation, we have a successful record of identifying, executing, and integrating acquisitions, and we intend to continue to pursue acquisitions where they can accelerate our growth objectives and are strategically and financially accretive.
Our business strategy and growth roadmap allow us to remain on the leading edge of secular trends driving self-directed banking, be efficient and have widespread availability of financial services and financial inclusion more broadly.