NCR, the world’s largest manufacturer of cash machines, has announced a forthcoming upgrade to its cashpoint software that will allow customers to withdraw cash using their mobile phones.

The Mobile Cash Withdrawal system will allow consumers to pre-order a cash withdrawal using their bank’s mobile application. When they get to the nearest cashpoint running NCR’s software, the cashpoint will display a 2D barcode which the user will scan with the camera on their mobile phone to authenticate the transaction. The entire process could take as little as 10 seconds, NCR says.

NCR claims the system would not store any sensitive data about the customer on their device. It says it would improve security by removing the need for cards and PINS and would thwart cashpoint ‘skimming’ devices.

The system requires that banks either include the NCR functionality into their existing mobile banking applications or adopt NCR’s own mobile banking application platform, launched last year. The company has yet to sign any banks up to the system and is looking for "strategic partnership opportunities with select financial institutions to pilot this new solution".

“We live in a mobile world where the modern consumer expects to handle transactions using a variety of media,” said Michael O’Laughlin, senior vice president at NCR Financial Services. “NCR Mobile Cash Withdrawal will help financial institutions meet their customers’ expectations in the mobile channel and help them deliver a differentiated and faster converged channel experience.”

NCR’s system adds another dimension to the ongoing disruption of traditional payment methods by mobile phones. Last month, Swedish start-up iZettle announced that it will launch its mobile payments technology, which allows traders and shop owners to use their mobile phones as point-of-sale systems, to the UK this year, while in February Barclays Bank launched PingIt, a mobile phone application that allows users to make money transfers.