Global bank Revolut is opening its first ATMs anywhere in the world in Barcelona, coinciding with the city’s greatest music festival, Primavera Sound.
The bank will first install 50 ATMs between the Catalan city and Madrid on Monday, June 9th , following a temporary placement at Primavera Sound, and then soon add more, eventually reaching 200 ATMs in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, and Malaga.
Spain will be the first country to test the next stage for the “cashless organisation,” which recognises that “cash is still important,” according to Antonie le Nel, chief growth and marketing officer at Revolut’s Barcelona TecHub facilities.
Non-registered customers will have the ability to immediately receive a Revolut debit card and withdraw money using any other bank card for a fee. Registered users will not be required to pay any commissions to use the devices.
Barcelona has also been chosen to test the product, since “the city is a tourist destination, and it is important for Revolut customers to feel at home” when they start using the bank’s ATMs, Le Nel explained.
Customers withdrawing in a currency apart from their home balance (for example, a GBP card withdrawing euros in Spain) will receive the same exchange rates as they do on the app, which are based on Revolut’s rates. In a market where foreign ATM withdrawals often “come with high charges and poor conversion rates, Revolut’s ATMs give travellers a smarter, fairer way to access their money globally,” according to the announcement.
The city’s offices, employing approximately 300 people, exclusively created and designed the ATM project. ATMs are viewable in-app through a real-time ATM finder, which includes directions and operating hours.
“We do not have a physical presence, and we want to bring Revolut to our customers,” Le Nel stated. This boosts “trust and the feeling of proximity.”
Aside from designing and testing the product in Barcelona, Le Nel stated that one out of every ten Spaniards has a Revolut account, and people in Spain still use cash. The country is also the bank’s second largest market in continental Europe, with over five million subscribers, trailing only France, which has well over five million users. Their largest global market is the United Kingdom, which has over 11 million registered users.
From Monday to September, the company will install ATMs throughout the city, adding three to five new machines each week. By the end of the year, the company will begin to expand its physical presence, with the goal of reaching 200 locations nationally by 2026.
There will be two fee-free ATM designs for Revolut users: ‘In Lobby’ and ‘Through the Wall.’ The first type of ATM would be located indoors, while the second type will be placed in “very central areas with a lot of people passing by; because as more people see the ATM, more people will use it,” according to sources at Revolut who spoke to reporters.
Despite not disclosing investment estimates, it has been “an important project to fully develop the product in Barcelona.” According to these sources, “Many Spaniards are leading different projects at Revolut, but the main project of the Barcelona TecHub has been working on ATMs.”
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