or ATM owners, trust and reliability are the utmost factors to consider when selecting a vault cash supplier. Not only does that company need to deliver the money, but it also must do so securely and consistently. After all, what good is an ATM without cash to dispense?

ATM owners and deployers have come to trust and rely on Newark, Del.-based Cash Connect, the ATM division of Wilmington Savings Fund Society (WSFS) Bank. The company provides 6,000 ATM deployers and ISOs in 47 states with more than $125 million in cash for their ATMs. The company is also a national distributor of Triton ATMs and provides ATM processing solutions.

Founded in 1832, WSFS is one of the oldest financial institutions in the country operating under its original charter. The bank has 25 branches, holds more than $2 billion in assets, and has had an ATM division in place since 1997.

"With over $2.4 billion in assets, Cash Connect's customers can be confident that we have the cash for their growing businesses," said Thomas E. Stevenson, President of Cash Connect.

Does a vault cash supplier need to be part of a bank to be effective? "Not necessarily, but it's the standard, and you need a very specialized system to make it work," said John Clatworthy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Cash Connect.

"In the last seven years, we've really refined our system so we feel like we've got the strongest controls in the entire industry."

Cash Connect works with a network of banks across the United States for its cash distribution system.

"We're able to wire out cash for [the banks'] armored carriers to pick up, pack out and deliver to ATMs, and then we track it as it settles back," Clatworthy said. Refined Tracking SystemsAs a vault cash supplier, Cash Connect offers ATM set up and conversion, automated cash ordering and funding, electronic reconciliation, automated settlement imports and exports, electronic cash order confirmations, armored carrier notification and vault cash insurance.

The company tracks delivery and distribution with its proprietary CashTrack software and database, now in its third generation.

As transactions take place at ATMs, Cash Connect's database receives direct feeds from the different processing networks including RBS Lynk, Genpass, First Data Corp., STAR, Core Data and others.

With its system, Cash Connect targets residual levels by site. "We're able to track the cash to the dollar every day," Clatworthy said.

Additional tracking information comes from armored carriers as they load funds and then supply paperwork with any remaining cash. "Our system can import electronic settlement sheets in an electronic format so we're able to quickly balance the ATM and find any situation where it's over or short of cash," he said.

"When you're in a cash business, cash will disappear if you don't watch over it like a hawk."

Through the years, Cash Connect refined its system so it always has the right people and technology in place. "A lot of it is, you stub your toe, then you learn, and you put controls and processes in place so you're never at risk of losing cash in that way again," Clatworthy said.

"An armored carrier might be making $15 - $20 an hour, but they're driving around with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. You really have to have the controls and security in place to make sure that no one gets tempted to take it."

The ISO Connection

Cash Connect contracts directly with ISOs; some even remarket the company's services. ISOs will partner with companies such as Cash Connect because many of them would rather invest the money in their own businesses instead of using the cash to load ATMs.

"As an ISO, you'd have to tie up a ton of cash," Clatworthy said. "What we're able to do is allow ISOs to instead use their money to secure more locations to really maximize their sales channel.

"ISOs are out there finding real estate or retail locations for ATMs; it might be a chain of stores. We put our cash in locations like Kmart and Wal-Mart and at many gas stations and convenience stores.

ISOs contract with those locations, whether they own or lease the ATM, and they look to a company like Cash Connect to provide the cash."

Clatworthy said the company works with some of the largest ISOs in the industry that are "out on the acquiring trail."

Because the industry faces frequent consolidation of companies and ATM portfolios, Cash Connect tries to position itself with the companies that are looking to acquire other businesses.

"Because as our customers grow, we'll be able to grow with them," he said.

A Growing Business

Cash Connect has grown consistently year after year. In 1997, the company supplied cash to 14 bank branch ATMs. A year later, it was the top ATM deployer in Delaware. And every year between 2001 and 2004, Cash Connect doubled the number of ATMs it services.

"Since we started our ATM program, it's grown 135% per year on average over the past seven years," Clatworthy said. "We're still the top deployer of off-premise ATMs in the state of Delaware, but we don't compete with our customers on a national basis.

Cash Connect deploys more than 200 ATMs in Delaware.

"The fact that we do it right here in our own backyard helps us understand what our customers' business model is and the challenges they face," he said.

As part of its ATM program management services, Cash Connect offers ATM transaction processing, ATM equipment sales, 24/7 monitoring of the ATM, terminal set ups, automated revenue sharing, residual payment and reporting, vendor management with networks and armored carriers and claims processing.

The company has 25 employees. In addition to a sales and marketing staff, a funding department makes sure cash gets out on time to the ATMs, and a settlement department carefully tracks any extra cash coming back so nothing is missing and everything balances out.

"Most ATMs are loaded twice a month or bi-weekly, so we constantly receive cash orders," Clatworthy said.

The recent trend of an increasing number of ATM placements and a decreasing number of ATM transactions has not affected this company's business. "The more ATMs that are out there, the more cash that's needed overall," he said.

"Our profitability isn't tied so much to the individual ATM location, but we are certainly sensitive to our customers watching the volume per ATM go down, so we work with them as much as possible to try to keep their cash costs down."

At the end of the first quarter 2005, Cash Connect plans to launch a Web-based system for requesting, tracking and managing cash. "Customers will be able to place cash orders over the Web and create management-level reports," Clatworthy said.

"We will continue to improve our technology to ensure we have the best controls in the industry, and we will try to keep our customers at the center of all our decisions.

"For them, cash is the lifeblood of an ATM program; it's the oil that makes the machine run," he said.