Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), one of the nation’s largest banks in terms of assets, announced that they are transitioning their 12,000 ATMs nationwide to envelope-free systems.
The latest announcement came from Wells Fargo’s operations in the north west and said that the company’s 98 ATMs in Idaho, Spokane Ontario, and Baker City, Oregon will be upgraded during the month of February to envelope-free technology. After this phase of the project, 27% of the company’s 12,000 ATMs will be envelope-free.
Wells Fargo Idaho Region President Dana Reddington said in a statement that “Our customers can reduce waste and save trees by depositing stacks of bills and checks directly into Wells Fargo’s ATM.”
The company’s first envelope-free ATMs were put in place in 2006 in the state of California. As of September 30th 2009, Wells Fargo’s envelope-free ATMs had processed more than 100 million checks saving more than 80 million in paper envelopes. The company said that its paper free envelopes had saved the equivalent of 460 tons of paper.
The technology inside the paperless ATM machines can sort and count paper money and verifies the dollar amount of each bill. Customers can also place up to 30 checks into one machine at the time. The ATM converts the checks to digital images which are printed on the ATM screen and on the customer’s receipt.
