27/12-10   -   Press releases

New ’Super ATMs’ Can Halve Cash in Circulation

Real market results from a major Swedish bank show that BANQIT’s new revolutionary local cash recycling machine, the QCR, leads to highly satisfied customers and massive savings in notes in circulation and corresponding costs for cash handling. The QCR is a ‘super ATM’ that receives deposits from retailers and within a few seconds dispenses the same notes to bank customers, in effect shortcircuiting the traditional extensive and expensive cash handling loop.

Results from a real life proof-of-concept installation of a Q-Cash Router (QCR) lasting 12 months at Swedbank’s headquarter in central Stockholm, Sweden, have just been compiled and analyzed. The results show that Swedbank (one of Sweden’s four major banks with 19 000 employees and assets totalling EUR 196 billion) was able to reduce the need for transports of notes to and from the branch by EUR 490,000 worth of notes per week, equivalent to EUR 25 million worth of notes per year, by using only one single QCR machine.

A survey also shows that Swedbank’s retail customers using the new QCR were highly satisfied with the functionality of the QCR; It was regarded as user friendly, reliable, informative, and with a good capacity to deposit cash swiftly and to receive cash without queues.

“The results indicate that it is possible to reduce the amount of cash being unnecessarily transported and counted by banks, CIT companies and cash depots by up to 50 per cent, in Sweden or in any other country in the world", said Leif Lundblad, CEO and owner of BANQIT, the developer and manufacturer of QCR.

Massive potential savings of cash handling costs around the world

The total cost of handling cash is estimated at SEK 11 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) annually in Sweden, at EUR 50-70 billion per year in the European Union, and at USD 60 billion per year in the USA. The costs correspond to 0.4-0.6 per cent of annual GDP’s, of which a very large portion could be saved by using local recycling machines such as the QCR. The main costs are the actual manual handling of cash, transport of cash between shops, banks and cash depots, and the risks for robberies.

“Today’s ATMs are ancient machines that should be replaced. It is almost bizarre to transport and count all the cash that is deposited so many times in the loop when the customers could withdraw the same cash in the same machine just a few meters away, and just a few seconds later. Cash handling amounts to up to 10-20 per cent of an average retail bank’s total costs, so there are massive savings to be done for both banks and the society at large", said Leif Lundblad.

Despite strong efforts by banks and card companies to entice people to use cards instead of cash, people still prefer cash for many reasons, and the fact is that cash in circulation is increasing globally, not decreasing.

That can only change by “shortcircuiting" the unnecessary and expensive cash handling loop and use modern cash recycling machines like the QCR that can both accept and immediately dispense cash without the need for the cash to be transported to cash depots and central banks for counting etc.

Mr. Leif Lundblad – the serial cash handling solutions entrepreneur

Leif Lundblad is a serial entrepreneur and the man who in the 70’s invented cash dispensing technologies that are now used in ATM’s and teller-assisted units all over the world. The QCR is the result of ten years of inventions and product development and is protected by more than 90 patents.

Cash deposited by retailers in the QCR is credited to their accounts immediately. All the notes are automatically counted, sorted and controllled. Counterfeit detected, unfit, dyed and suspect notes are separated and retained. The QCR can through its unique design with multiple interfaces (so-called fascias) simultaneously process up to 10 withdrawals and one deposit in four minutes. The QCR is the only cash recycling machine on the market that can simultaneously service three people with deposit and withdrawals.

Another unique and patented feature of the QCR is the use of SealPacks: heat-sealed, tamper-proof plastic enclosures with the content labelled in clear text and barcoded. This eliminates the time and costs associated with transporting banknotes to cash centres for processing and then back to ATMs via standard cash cassettes.


The QCR differentiates itself from other traditional ATMs and recycling machines (which only have one customer fascia) by having four customer fascias which can be operated simultaneously for deposits and withdrawals. This makes the QCR the only solution available in the market enabling real efficient local recycling of cash with a possible 50 per cent reduction of the costs for manual cash handling and transportation of cash.

Central banks all over the world have lately been trying to push commercial banks to take responsability for reducing cash in circulation due to the high costs and risks associated with cash handling, and are in general in favour of cash recycling solutions.

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About BANQIT

BANQIT develops, manufactures and market solutions for cash handling, including local cash recycling. BANQIT offers innovative systems based on advanced technology to retail banks, cash-in-transit companies (CITs) and retailers.

The Q-CashRouter (QCR) - BANQIT´s new product line, enables automated and efficient local recycling of cash and reduces the need for manual handling and transporting of cash, with considerable cost savings for retail banks, retailers and CIT companies. It is a self service unit allowing banknotes that are deposited in the QCR to be reused immediately for withdrawals, including automated counting, sorting, quality control, counterfeit and ink-dye detection as well as automated banknote packaging in SealPacks.

Fewer transports will reduce costs in society, increase security and benefit the environment.

Mr. Leif Lundblad is the inventor of the Q-CashRouter and the owner of BANQIT. Mr. Lundblad has invented many of the modern cash dispensing technologies used in TAUs and ATMs. BANQIT’s present operations started in 1999. BANQIT is based in Kista just north of Stockholm, Sweden. Leif Lundblad is BANQIT’s CEO.