Report: Large Banks Looking To Integrate Apple Pay In ATMs

According to a report by TechCrunch, Bank of America Corp BAC and Wells Fargo & Co WFC are both looking to integrate Apple Inc. AAPL's Apple Pay virtual wallet into their ATMs.

TechCrunch, citing "a source familiar with the teams on the projects," noted that both banks have tasked engineers to work on the multi-month project.

Wells Fargo's head of ATMs, Jonathan Velline, told TechCrunch that the company has been "working on the technology that allows us to hook to digital wallets, leveraging NFC on mobile phones to replace the card at the transaction at the ATM."

"Right now the wallet that we support is Android Pay," Velline added. "But we're also looking at lots of different mobile wallets and evaluating which ones are going to be appropriate for our customers. We'll likely add more mobile wallets throughout the year."

When Velline was further pressed to confirm if the ATMs will support Apple's virtual wallet, he failed short of providing a firm confirmation but did say "I think that's a good assessment."

Bank of America's Consumer Banking Products press Representative Betty Riess offered a similar response when TechCrunch pressed if their ATMs will support Apple Pay.

She said the bank is ""currently developing a new cardless ATM solution. This solution will enable customers to leverage NFC (near field communication) technology on their smart phone in order to authenticate and complete transactions at a Bank of America ATM."

However, she added "At this point we're not confirming which phones they'll work with."

From this statement, TechCrunch concluded "the iPhone is by far the most popular phone in the U.S., so this all meshes with our source saying Bank Of America is working on Apple Pay for ATMs."