ATMs May Be Installed at 400 7-Eleven Stores

A joint venture including Bank of America and three other businesses is near an agreement to install automatic teller machines in at least 400 7-Eleven convenience stores in Southern California in what would become one of the nation’s largest such ATM-retailer arrangements.

Under the deal, expected to be signed next week, more than 7 million holders of ATM cards from at least 155 savings institutions and 112 credit unions in California and other states would have access to the machines, said Gene Roberts, marketing director for CU-ATM Cooperative Inc., a division of the California Credit Union League and one of the joint venture partners.

“It would be one of the largest retailer-based ATM operations in the country,” Roberts said. He added that it will be the first such arrangement involving a major credit union organization. CU-ATM services the automated tellers of 112 credit unions.

Several major supermarket chains, retailers and oil companies--including Safeway, Kroger, Atlantic Richfield, Mobil and Texaco--also have these machines. While some of these retailers may have more than 400 ATM outlets, they are often operated by different ATM networks in different states.

Such machines boost sales by allowing customers to withdraw cash to pay for purchases or to bill their bank accounts. Because of such convenience, “the ATM is an integral part of our strategy,” said Jim Willett, spokesman for Dallas-based Southland Corp., parent of 7-Eleven.

More than 3,900 of 7-Eleven’s 7,762 stores already have ATMs. The machines also are in place in 105 7-Elevens in the Los Angeles area. But those machines have been idle since December, when the firm operating them, National Transaction Systems, shut them down.

Access to the machines would be available to many of the 9 million holders of credit cards issued by Bank of America. Holders of Bank of America ATM cards also may eventually have access. Access also would be available to holders of ATM cards from the 155 institutions that are members of the STAR System, an ATM network.

Member institutions include Home Savings of America, Home Federal Savings, Great Western Savings, Crocker National Bank, Lloyds Bank of California and Sumitomo Bank of California, Roberts said.

Other partners in the joint venture are Southland Corp. and Automatic Data Processing, which will operate the hardware and software.