Barclays PingIt: what's next?

Cardless ATM withdrawals.

Now that RBS/NatWest stole the thunder and even such non-bank companies as Ukash offer cardless ATM withdrawals, Barclays has to catch up. Banks have the luxury of being able to add new functions and services to their own ATMs without getting the LINK network involved. It shouldn't take Barclays long to integrate such a "cardless cash withdrawal" function into their ATM architecture (perhaps they can even re-purpose NCR's barcode-based solution).

The "rails" are already in place: Barclays can create an internal "master cash" account, link it to PingIt and off you go - PingIt your friend £20 via "cash only" option; Barclays draws £20 from your Barclays account, adds that money to the "master cash" account and sends your friend a code that allows to withdraw £20 from that "master cash" account via any Barclays ATM. That would place Barclays two steps ahead of its rivals - RBS/NatWest only provides cardless ATM service to its own customers, whilst PingIt could offer it to anybody.

Barclays could also extend PingIt platform even further to compete with companies like Monitise - in fact, PingIt is already open to business customers who need a cost-effective and fast way to receive funds from consumers.

[Disclosure: we, at TEDIPAY, are looking at using PingIt for that purpose.]