Madrid-based Hart, 100% Spanish-owned and part of the Itisa – Investigacion Tecnica Industrial SA – Group, is pushing hard to interest future-minded banks in its specialised financial transaction machines, which have already sold well overseas. The machines are designed to perform services such as foreign currency exchange, payment of bills and taxes, and changing notes for coins. Managing director of Hart, Miguel Lopez, told Computerworld Espana that his company’s products are intended to bring electronic banking one step closer by automating processes of low added value, so bank staff are freed to perform tasks of greater added value. Most of the machines’ hardware is developed by Hart itself and emphasis is placed on producing simple, user-friendly equipment that is highly adaptable to the needs of the customer. Hart has been manufacturing self-service foreign currency exchange machines since the late 1980s; these are marketed under the name of CADI and have a single reading device for notes, a compatible personal computer and an interactive tactile screen. The system currently accepts some 150 notes of various currencies and will also dispense local coins. The equipment can be fully integrated with the banking organisation’s computing network and combined with other systems marketed by Hart, such as those employed in self-service terminals for the payment of bills and taxes, which feature automatic reading of bills by bar code and cash or credit card payment facilities. Hart currently has 450 specialised machines installed in countries that include Italy, Uruguay, Mexico, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in Spain, and expects to top turnover of $4m in the 1995 fiscal year.
