Just because it lost an agreement to deploy ATMs in 7-Eleven-owned convenience stores across the U.S., Cardtronics maintained that its partially-owned subsidiary, the surcharge-free Allpoint network, may still keep ATMs in some 7-Eleven stores.

Cardtronics Director of Public Relations Nick Pappathopoulos explained that Cardtronics did not own all of Allpoint's ATMs, including some installed in 7-Eleven stores. 

However, a release from Seven Bank, a Japanese company and owner of the ATM deployer that 7-Eleven will begin using in July 2017, made it clear that it had an exclusive agreement to place ATMs in all stores operated by 7-Eleven, Inc.

Financial Consulting & Trading International Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, will deploy the ATMs according to the release. 

“Under such circumstances, it has been decided that FCTI will enter into an ATM placement agreement with 7-Eleven, Inc.,” the company wrote in its July 7 release. “(U)nder which, from July 2017, FCTI will basically be able to install and operate ATMs on an exclusive basis at the 7-Eleven stores located in the U.S. which are operated by 7-Eleven, Inc.”

According to its website, 7-Eleven operated 1,400 of the total 7,800 7-Eleven branded stores in the U.S. and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd in November 2005. That company also owned 45.8% of Seven Bank, according to the release.

Credit union league and payment network executives noted that while surcharge-free access to ATMs remain a key element of credit union marketing, credit unions have ways to access surcharge-free ATMs other than through Allpoint.

“The bottom line is that we are ready [to address the change],” Mansel Guerry, president/CEO of CU24, said. The Tallahassee, Fla.-based payment network has a relationship with Allpoint that allows participating CU24 credit unions to choose to access surcharge-free ATMs either through Allpoint or through CUHere, the network's reciprocal surcharge-free alliance.

“What I have found since I have been here for the last two and a half years is that our sweet spot has been with smaller to medium sized credit unions,” Guerry said. “They are net ATM issuers, not deployers, and they need wide ATM access to remain competitive. That's what we help them do.”

Read more: Leagues, payment network execs respond to the news …

Guerry went on to describe the payments industry as being like a town on the San Andreas Fault, where the market frequently shakes – and sometimes destroys – established relationships and institutions. He said the payments network has learned to routinely search for additional ways to get credit unions the access they need to cope with the pace of change. He noted, for example, that CU24 also has a relationship with Publix that allows its members to obtain surcharge-free access at the large grocery store chain.

In addition, two of the credit union trade groups that Allpoint listed on its website as partners revealed that they partnered with Allpoint through an agreement brokered by an organization called the Mid-Atlantic Regional Services Corp., and that the MARS agreement had ended at the close of 2014.

“It was an agreement that we joined a few years back to help market Allpoint to credit unions in Pennsylvania,” Michael Wishnow, the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association's senior vice president of communications, said. “But it ended at the close of 2014 by mutual agreement.”

The PCUA, Delaware Credit Union League, Maryland and DC Credit Union Association and New Jersey Credit Union League all became Allpoint partners through the agreement that, he said, had not done very much in Pennsylvania with the 7-Eleven arrangement.

“Allpoint didn't catch on through 7-Elevens in the western part of the state because they don't have many 7-Elevens there,” Wishnow said. “Likewise, there aren't as many 7-Elevens in the eastern part because we have other convenience store chains, such as WaWa, as competitors.”

Likewise, Delaware Credit Union League Executive Vice President Jane Bailey said Allpoint had not made many inroads through 7-Elevens for her credit unions because there were not many 7-Elevens there.

She stressed, however, that Allpoint ATMs could be found through other locations and that surcharge-free access remained important to credit unions in Delaware.

“Surcharge-free ATMs is a member benefit for credit unions of all sizes,” Bailey wrote in an email. “MARS had negotiated a great deal with Allpoint (fee-wise), which allowed some of our smaller credit unions to participate. In addition, in Delaware, the credit unions of the league's former DELCU Financial ATM CUSO still have an agreement not to surcharge each others' members.”