Business booming at fiver-only ATMs

AN INDEPENDENT hole-in-the-wall company has installed its 300th cash machine that handles £5 notes.

Bank Machine plans to continue expanding the number of free ATMs that dispense only fivers, and hopes to have a total of 400 in place by June.

It said transactions carried out at a number of key sites had doubled since it had introduced the idea. Ron Delnevo, the company's managing director, said: "It was good to see the recent announcement by some banks that they intend to put some fivers into their machines.

"However, fiver-only machines, such as those run by Bank Machine, are still likely to issue more fivers than all other ATMs put together."

The company believes its latest ATM, at East Croydon station, will be the busiest in the country, with around 50,000 5 notes expected to be withdrawn from it a month. The firm became the first cash machine operator to install ATMs dispensing 5 notes in 2008.

The move helped to get an additional 100,000 fivers into circulation every month from just two machines.