Even digital banks need a digital transformation strategy. Paraguay’s market leader Ueno Bank is leveraging ATMs known as Digital Experience Terminals (TEDs) to provide customers with innovative services – including football game and music concert ticketing. Delivered by KAL and regional partner Belltech, this pioneering ATM project is powered by KAL’s customizable and cutting-edge software.
Background: Ueno Bank is Paraguay’s number one
Ueno Bank is the top digital bank in Paraguay and the biggest bank by client base – serving 2 million customers (almost one-third of the population). Alongside a mobile banking application, it has over 70 physical locations and is on a mission to maximize financial inclusion. Ueno Bank’s ambitious tech-driven strategy relies on innovation to satisfy the high demand for accessible banking, digital transformation, and cash services in Paraguay. Within this strategy, ATMs are a key customer touchpoint between digital and physical channels.
Challenge: Tailoring ATMs to a rapidly scaling digital-first environment
The main challenges Ueno Bank faced with ATMs concerned innovation and scalability. The bank needed its ATMs to keep up with digital transformation, emerging technologies, and next-generation customer experiences. It sought to ensure consistency between channels by maximizing ATM innovation, knowing that cash usage in Paraguay is ranked among the highest in Latin America. The bank also sought to streamline PCI DSS compliance and reduce associated workloads.
Together with technology partner iTTi, Ueno Bank identified inflexible ATM software as a key obstacle to success. Other problem areas included outdated on-premise server infrastructures and lengthy deployment times for new functionality.
Solution: Advanced, future-ready ATM software and the cloud
Ueno Bank and iTTi chose KAL’s market-leading Kalignite software to optimize Ueno Bank’s ATM network. Engineered by global ATM innovators and deployed in over 100 countries, KAL software supports all the technologies banks need – from contactless and web / mobile integration to advanced security and diverse ATM hardware types. It is robust, user-friendly, and powerful.
KAL collaborated with regional partner Belltech to implement the following solutions:
- K3A (KAL’s advanced ATM application)
- KTC (KAL’s remote ATM monitoring and management system)
- KTH (KAL’s card-acquiring host system)
Building on this foundation, KAL and Belltech delivered cloud migration and rapid ATM functionality enhancements to complement digital banking goals.
Results: Increased ATM innovation and scalability
Ueno Bank ATMs go so far beyond traditional ATM functionality that they have earned a new name: Digital Experience Terminals (TEDs). With help from KAL and Belltech, these machines are more multi-tasking and customer-centric than ever before.
Customizable ATM software combining everything that’s needed
With Kalignite software, Ueno Bank ATMs are supported by robust and flexible solutions with integrated development environments enabling rapid ATM enhancements. The K3A application satisfies all current and future ATM technology requirements. KAL's KTC monitoring and management system controls ATM operations down to individual ATMs and components.
KAL’s KTH host system is at the heart of Ueno Bank's digital ATM transformation – maximizing ATM functionality, security, and agility while replacing a legacy host system that was unsuitable for the digital, cloud-based era.
Reduced PCI DSS compliance workloads through AWS
AWS provides a PCI DSS-compliant infrastructure, significantly reducing the compliance scope for Ueno Bank by offloading physical and foundational security controls.
With a broad portfolio of pre-certified services, robust encryption and key management tools (like AWS KMS and CloudHSM), and automated security services (such as AWS Config, GuardDuty, and Security Hub), AWS enables acquirers to implement and maintain secure, scalable, and resilient payment processing environments. AWS offers further audit trails, continuous monitoring, and automated compliance reporting - streamlining PCI DSS audits and reducing operational overhead.
50 new transaction types and more milestones delivered in just six months
The first phase of this project took place in 2021 and involved KAL software migration, cloud migration, and deploying contactless transactions. KAL and Belltech commenced phase two in 2024 and delivered many ATM enhancements in just six months, with support for:
- Music tickets
- Sporting tickets
- Gaming
- Currency exchange
- Tax payments
- Card transactions
- Visa
- Mastercard
- Remote key loading (RKL)
Next steps for KAL, Belltech, and Ueno Bank ATMs
Ueno Bank has over 700 KAL-powered ATMs (Digital Experience Terminals) delivering next-generation experiences for customers. Many of these machines are in modern, nature-inspired bank branches throughout Paraguay. They act as a key bridge between online and physical spaces within Ueno Bank's innovative digital-first strategy.
This project is expected to scale alongside expanding bank operations, with 1,200 ATMs forecast by 2025 year end.
To find out how KAL and Belltech can help your organization maximize digital integration and scalability in the ATM channel,