TietoEnator is reporting that it will meet the 2002 deadline for its ATM Euro conversion project for Automatia, the bank-backed payments operator in Finland.
The company says it has completed the necessary changes to Automatia's Otto cash machines for dispensing euro notes and is currently undertaking final testing. The first ATMs will hand out euros from 1 January 2002. Within two weeks of the introduction of the single currency, all of the 2000 Otto ATMs in Finland will deliver only euro bills.
Finland was recently singled out by the European Commission as falling behind other member states in its preparations for dispensing euro notes from the national cash machine network.
TietoEnator says the planning of euro changes was started in 1997. An important part of the development work was to guarantee the uninterrupted and simultaneous operation between Automatia and the Finnish banks, says the company.
On average, over 10,000 withdrawals per month are made with one ATM in Finland. In Europe, the corresponding number is about 3500 withdrawals.