London: Banks around the world, might miss a deadline to upgrade outdated software for automated teller machines (ATMs) and face additional costs to Microsoft to keep them secure.
The US software company first warned that it was planning to end support for Windows XP in 2007. According to NCR, only one-third of the world's 2.2 million ATMs, which use the system, will have been upgraded to a new platform, such as Windows 7 by the April.
To ensure the machines are protected against viruses and hackers many banks have agreed deals with Microsoft. Adding to this, they have even agreed to continue supporting their ATMs until they are upgraded, extra costs and negotiations that were avoidable but are now likely to be a distraction for bank executives.
"There are certainly large enterprise customers who haven't finished their migrations yet and are purchasing custom support," said a spokesman for Microsoft. "The cost will depend on both the specific needs of the customer and what support they already have in place, so it's different for every customer."
Windows XP currently supports around 95 percent of the world's ATMs.
"They were probably not very serious about the directive that came in from Microsoft. There's a lot of change going on at these banks at this moment in time and they would have seen Windows XP as one more change," added Microsoft spokesperson.
‘About 440,000or are located in the United States and many of the banks operating them will still be running their ATMs with Windows XP for a while after the April 8 deadline,’ said Doug Johnson, Vice President for risk management policy at the American Bankers Association.
Some banks are using the upgrade as an opportunity to introduce new features to their ATMs such as being able to read cards that have microchips rather than magnetic stripes.
Bank of America also said it would ask Microsoft to extend support for its machines still running on Windows XP.
Citigroup Inc, which has more than 12,000 ATMs worldwide, said ‘It is in the process of upgrading its machines from XP and declined to give further details.’
RBS will begin upgrading its ATMs to run on Windows 7 soon and expects to complete the process within three years. The investment is part of the 1.4 billion pounds each year, which new Chief Executive Ross McEwan has committed in order to improve the bank's computer systems.
HSBC, which has 3,200 ATMs, said it was two years into a three-year programme of upgrades which it expects to complete next year. It had also reached a deal with Microsoft.
