BOSTON – Financial institutions and independent deployers will spend over $2.5 billion on services for their fleets of automated teller machines by 2007, according to a research report produced by Celent, a research and analysis firm based here. In a recently prepared report on outsourced ATM services worldwide, the firm found that financial services and independent deployers around the globe spent $4.9 billion on outsourced ATM services in 2002, and the firm predicted the trend will only continue. "Although a few basic functions have been outsourced for years, managed services still comprise only a tenth or so of total ATM operating costs," comments Isabella Fonseca, Celent senior analyst and co-author of the report. "Several factors, including the migration from OS/2 to open systems, a trend favoring bundled services by ATM makers and other providers, and an increasing need for banks to focus on their core business, will help drive a steady expansion in demand. There is still plenty of room for growth in this market," she added.