ATMs Anyplace Anywhere Anytime

Geldmaat: Outsourced Cash Handling

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Ready to kiss the ATM goodbye? We might soon see a world where Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are a thing of the past. As digital money becomes increasingly used for conducting business in the Netherlands, the amount of cash in circulation gradually decreases. With a reduced demand for cash, there is less need for ATMs. However, a core group of Dutch businesses and customers still rely on cash transactions. Today, in 2025, ATMs are everywhere in the Netherlands: in supermarkets, hardware stores, and on streetcorners. Some complain that ATMs are no longer available past eleven pm. While some complaints are less valid, ATM coverage in the Netherlands has certainly gone down. Since cash handling in the Netherlands became outsourced, ATM maintenance has been less consistent than expected by Dutch customers. Some report having no functional ATM in their village for weeks on end: they describe the situation as ‘hopeless’. Others lose hundreds of euros due to ATM malfunctions that can take days to fix. ATM outages cause a huge deal of stress and worry, especially when talking about revenue received in cash, that cannot be deposited anywhere near your business. Working with cash has become increasingly more difficult. The question remains if the current cash handling system is sufficient to service the core group in the Netherlands who still rely on cash transactions.

ATMs have been around for decades. Amsterdam was the first Dutch city to receive an early version of the ATM back in 1976. Six years later, Rabobank placed the first Dutch ATM in Maria-Hoop, a village in Limburg. The 80s saw a rise in the use of ATMs in the Netherlands, led by Rabobank. Until then, cash had been dispensed by bank clerks, only available during office hours. The introduction of ATMs allowed for cash withdrawals and deposits outside of normal working hours. This offered clients more flexibility and reduced queues at bank offices. That way clerks could specialize in providing more complex financial services. Dutch customers grew to rely on the 24/7 availability of machines spitting cash from walls. When De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) introduced the PIN system in 1988 to help Dutch banks with a uniform payment system, this had the positive externality of bank cards becoming commonplace in the 90s. Consumers no longer had to carry around large amounts of cash to make payments. Digital money has been on the rise ever since. Cash payments formed only 19,9% of all transactions in 2023, while back in 2010, 65% of transactions in the Netherlands were carried out with cash. Reduced demand for cash led to a decrease in supply. Dutch banks no longer find it viable to maintain and operate their own cash handling system, because so few use cash these days. Cash handling has become a non-core function of Dutch banks, which opens the door for outsourcing.

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The big three Dutch commercial banks ING, Rabobank, and ABN Amro, together holding a market share of 83% in 2023, have been cooperating on cash logistics with their joint venture Geldservice Nederland (GSN) since 2011. When the world re-opened after COVID-19, many ING, Rabobank and ABN Amro bank offices remained closed for good. Cash handling has been outsourced to GSN, also known as Geldmaat, the smiley faced ATM, while customer service is outsourced to call centers and stationery shops such as Bruna and Primera. Geldmaat ATMs have been placed at random locations in supermarkets and stationery shops for banknote withdrawal, and in hardware stores Gamma and Karwei for coin deposits. When previously most ATMs were located inside or nearby bank offices. While the total number of ATMs has been greatly reduced, Geldmaat placed them at strategic locations where cash transactions are typically carried out.

This idea to disperse ATMs, while innovative, has some unfortunate consequences. Back when ATMs were located close to the bank associated with them, a malfunctioning ATM would cause loss of face for the bank. Thus banks had a vested interest in keeping their ATMs working properly. The bank had some sense of responsibility for their ATMs that carried their own logo. Due to more bank offices being open, with more employees working on site, customers could readily approach a bank clerk to voice their complaints. This helped facilitate trust in the system, as any ATM malfunction could be quickly resolved by asking a bank clerk for help. Outsourcing cash handling creates a situation where banks are no longer directly accountable for system failures. When Geldmaat took over the ATMs of ING, Rabobank and ABN Amro in 2020, the joint-venture became responsible for ATM maintenance and damages. However most Geldmaat ATM locations do not have a single Geldmaat employee manning them. Even the Geldmaat shops, containing several ATMs in one location, are fully automated, being operated only from a distance. With operators reachable via a telephone hotline. Customers can only physically approach the store employees working for the shops in which some Geldmaat ATMs have been placed. But no one working for Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Bruna, Primera, The Read Shop, Karwei or Gamma has been trained to respond and answer questions related to Geldmaat ATMs. Having a yellow smiley face as the Geldmaat logo does not help distinguish the company as a separate entity. When so many companies and groups use the yellow smiley emoticon: Dutch supermarket Jumbo prints the same emoticon on its yellow shopping bags. This logo is so widely in use that it is neither unique nor recognizable. Customers can be excused when in their frustration, they turn to Jumbo supermarket employees for help with a malfunctioning Geldmaat ATM. This then increases lines at your local Jumbo, since the Jumbo employees are suddenly tasked with extra unrewarded labor.

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While ATM service has been decent in the large cities of the Netherlands such as Amsterdam, Dutch newspapers report severe issues with ATM outages deeper inland. The Dutch provinces of Limburg, Noord Brabant, Gelderland, and Overijssel often find that there are no functioning ATMs in their area, forcing people to travel through several villages just to find one ATM. Geldmaat failed to provide the ATM coverage they promised to deliver. Set up by the Dutch Minister of Finance in 2002, the Maatschappelijk Overleg Betalingsverkeer (MOB) decided in 2021 that 99% of Dutch households should have access to an ATM within a 5 km radius. Geldmaat agreed to provide this service. However service has been lacking in recent years. The year 2023 saw nationwide outages, with each 25th ATM out of service, far greater numbers than the promised one in 40. The situation got so bad that it led to a serious question to the Dutch Minister of Finance in a meeting with the House of Representatives in 2022. Shortly speaking, the Dutch Ministry of Finance lacks the legal tools to demand better service from Geldmaat, a privately owned company. Attempts have been made to adjust Dutch law regarding cash management, which would incentivize Geldmaat to improve ATM accessibility. This top-down approach of ‘steering the economy’ does not reflect the values of free market and trade.

            Ideally, the free market determines prices, and dissatisfied customers are free to do business with a rival company. A true free market has many separate businesses offering similar services, which allows customers to select a suitable offer. In their 2007 discussion paper “The Impact of Market Structure, Contestability and Institutional Environment on Banking Competition”, Bikker, Spierdijk, and Finnie stress the importance of competition in the banking sector. Still in 2005, Dutch economist Arnoud Boot wrote that the Dutch banking sector has not always been perfectly competitive in the past. And while competition in the Dutch banking sector had been improving with new companies entering the market back in 2005, Boot already warned of systemic risk associated with bankruptcy. After the global financial crisis of 2007, several major players in the Dutch banking sector were forced to quit or leave the market for good. Leaving only ING, Rabobank, and ABN Amro as the big three standing today, totaling an 83% market share, with faint competition from de Volksbank, that holds 3% of the market share. Bank bailouts and nationalizations after the 2007 crisis, while competitors such as DSB bank were allowed to fail, eventually led to the oligopoly the Dutch banking sector knows today. Unlike a free market structure, oligopolistic markets allow for less competition. With a smaller number of competitors on the market, customers cannot easily switch to an alternative provider. This gives Dutch banks more market power, allowing them to set the terms. In the case of outsourced ATMs, the company managing these ATMs is not an independent provider, but a daughter company of ABN Amro, Rabobank, and ING. Who still hold the shares of Geldmaat. The current situation gives a lot of power to just three big banks in the Netherlands. And when all ATMs operated in the country are under management of Geldmaat, barring a few ‘white label ATMs’ that are not even under supervision, one would be understandably concerned about the creation of a cartel, or a monopoly.

            Reduced service and delayed maintenance on the ATMs could stem from Geldmaat’s unique position in the market. Geldmaat has no real competitors, so why should the company try hard to win over customers? Where will its customers go? To one of the independent white-label ATMs that regularly offer counterfeit notes? Should Dutch nationals travel to Belgium or Germany to deposit and withdraw cash from their bank accounts, facing additional charges for administrative fees? While this solution seems plausible to someone residing nearby the border, this is no solution for a regular person living in the Netherlands. By and large, Dutch people are dependent on Geldmaat ATMs, if they want to make purchases or do business in cash.

And that is the zinger: do we even need cash? The DNB says we do. Cash is not going anywhere anytime soon. And with the presence of cash, so will ATMs keep existing. Perhaps with less reliable service, lower coverage, and reduced availability, making cash less and less convenient. Gone are the days when you could roll up to your ABN Amro ATM and withdraw twenty euros randomly at 2 am, to pay your friend’s tab at the bar. Geldmaat ATMs are closed from 11 in the evening to 7 in the morning. Sure we can adjust our spending habits, and plan ahead, and make sure to never make big deposits on Saturdays. Because office workers only return on Monday, if anything goes wrong… your money may be gone. After 42 solid years of ATMs, maybe it is time to kiss the ATM goodbye and go all-digital. Let us look forward to a future without cash.