The $1.5 billion Technology Credit Union in San Jose, Calif.,has announced it will be the nation's first financial institutionto enable real-time, person-to-person payments from its ATMs toalmost anyone in the world with a mobile phone or e-mail address(more than 60 countries worldwide), using a new payments servicefrom NCR and PayPal.

In a statement, Dan Schatt, general manager of financialinnovations for PayPal, said, “We're thrilled that TechnologyCredit Union is extending our peer-to-peer payment expertise to theATM machine. With just a mobile phone number and a few taps on aTech CU NCR SelfServ ATM, Tech CU customers will be able to makeP2P money transfers quickly, easily and securely to anyone's PayPalaccount.”

“ATMs, mobile phones and online banking are increasinglybecoming the main channels our members use for their banking,” saidTech CU President/CEO Barbara Kamm in that same statement. “Webelieve this innovative payment solution will spur more financialinteractions through those channels. We plan to have thiscapability on all of our electronic platforms by early next year sothat our members can choose the payment or transfer option that'smost convenient for them.”

In an e-mail response to questions asked by Credit UnionTimes, Technology Credit Union said that it anticipated theservice would be available at around 50 ATMS in the San FranciscoBay Area in 2012.

In response to a question that asked if in fact the announcedoffering enabled members to do anything they could not already dowith PayPal on a smartphone, the credit union wrote: “Yes, in somecases individuals can do this same transaction from their mobiledevice (smart phone), but not everyone has a smart phone. Again, weare focused on offering our members as many options as possiblethrough which to do their banking.

“Our members are diverse – from different economic and culturalbackgrounds – and some feel more secure in doing their transactionsthrough an ATM while others prefer a mobile phone or onlinebanking. To give all of our members the best service possible, weendeavor to provide different platforms and allow them to choosewhat they are most comfortable with.”

PayPal and NCR had announced theirown partnership linking P2P to ATMs last month.

In early October, the 730,000-member Technology CU made newswith reports that it was investigating converting to a bank charter.The credit union declined to comment on the relationship, if any,between the PayPal announcement and the possible charterconversion.