More than 99% of European ATMs could still be running Windows XP, despite the much publicised end of Microsoft’s support for the operating system two days ago, according to a study from Retail Banking Research (RBR).
According to RBR’s comprehensive study ATMs in Europe 2014: Hardware, Software and Services, only 0.7% of the ATMs in Europe had been migrated from Windows XP to Windows 7 version by late last year.
About 0.9% of the overall upgraded systems are from Western Europe, and only 0.2% in central and eastern Europe, with 23 of the 33 country markets having no Windows 7 ATMs at all.
The report noted: "Since ATMs are unattended and used by consumers rather than employees, downtime has a major impact on customer service: the banking industry has thus relied on established operating systems with proven stability.
"Adoption of newer operating systems is also slowed by the need for supplier"s to provide driver software for the bespoke hardware devices found in ATMs, such as cash dispensing mechanisms and chip card readers," the report added.
About nine of the ten ATMs are still powered by Windows XP, while over 20,000 machines are still using IBM’s OS/2, standard support for which had been stopped since 2006, with most of them being in the UK and Spain.
Britain’s five biggest banks – Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Barclays and Santander have approached Microsoft to negotiate custom support, with a reported cost to each of up to £60m.
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The report further adds that several financial organisations have purchased extended support for Windows XP, while such support is costly and offered for about only two years, so banks however require a migration plan prepared anyhow.
