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Stuck bearing the full brunt of scheme fees? There’s a better way to manage your ATMs business.

17.05.2022

Woman stands at ATM; BIN Sponsorship; Cash; Scheme fees

Scheme memberships and fees can often seem like the hardest part of starting and running an ATMs business. It can take months for membership to be approved, even with the help of experts, and after a long and often confusing application process you’re then subject to pricy fixed fees1. Once established as a scheme member, managing the relationship remains tricky – with the need for compliance checks, payments, and keeping on top of changing regulations. However, what many companies don’t realise is that you don’t need to be a card scheme member yourself to accept those cards, what you need is a BIN Sponsor.

BIN Sponsors take the onus away from individual ATMs businesses for scheme membership, instead going through the difficult process to become members of major schemes themselves, and then conferring this onto their customers2. This means that it is the BIN Sponsor who pays the fees, ensures compliance, and manages the membership, reducing stress and saving money for the ATMs businesses in question.

Ease

Becoming a scheme member is a long and drawn-out process that is often convoluted and tricky to understand. Even after becoming a member, compliance is an ongoing task, requiring regular reporting and regulatory responses3. BIN Sponsors have experts that have spent years understanding compliance rules, governmental laws and regulations, and cross-border policies, to ensure that your business stays up to date, without you having to understand all the complexity and jargon yourself.

Time

Whereas becoming a scheme member can take 12 months or in some cases more, most BIN Sponsors can get you ready to launch your ATMs business in a quarter of the time. They can also save you time by finding suppliers to provide you with a complete, end-to-end package. Whether you’re missing a relationship with a bank that can provide your ATMs with cash, or a secure transit company, BIN Sponsors typically have a wealth of contacts and partners that they have access to.

Man-power

It’s a simple equation, if you’re saving time and scaling down the level of difficulty that setting-up and managing your ATMs business takes you, you’ll also be saving on people. You won’t need a department constantly checking that you’re meeting compliance requirements, as your BIN Sponsor can do this for you, nor will you need your lawyers to pour over lots of individual contracts with different schemes or hire experts to check everything is being managed correctly. Instead, you can focus on growing your business.

Expense

With the decline in cash, particularly over Covid, it’s become increasingly tricky for ATMs businesses to pay the significant scheme fees that have continued to rise each year, despite the downturn in cash usage4. If using a BIN Sponsorship model instead, the business is simply charged a small percentage on each ATM transaction, meaning that they only have to pay when they themselves are making money. Consequently, if one month your business has a lower transaction rate, you’re not still compelled to pay the same amount in fees.

Cashflows has a wealth of experience in managing BIN Sponsorship throughout the UK and EEA markets. With our network of partners, we can help you with every aspect of your business and deliver a complete solution from sourcing ATMs to scheme membership to cash transportation and security. We understand compliance inside out, both in terms of card schemes and each country’s rules and regulations. Let us help you make your business simple, speak to us today.

 


Sources:

1Bobsguide

2Financial IT

3Bobsguide

4The Bank of England