Thailand's Bangkok Bank has contracted with US ATM manufacturer Diebold for the supply and maintenance of 1200 of the vendor's Opteva cash machines.
Diebold began installing about 200 of the Opteva ATMs in Bangkok Bank branches and retail stores in November and will continue with large scale instillations every month throughout 2008 until all 1200 machines have been deployed.
The ATMs operate on Diebold's Agilis software - an open system that allows multiple vendors' terminals and technologies to co-exist on an ATM network and decreases the need for back-end support while protecting investments in legacy systems.
Bangkok Bank first awarded Diebold a contract nearly 10 years ago to maintain 600 machines and has since ordered more than 4000 terminals from the American vendor.
The new contract is welcome news for Diebold as it fends off an unsolicited cash takeover bid, worth around $3 billion, from US conglomerate United Technologies Corporation (UTC). The firm's board of directors has "unanimously rejected" UTC's unsolicited proposal but the suitor says it remains committed to its offer.