Posted: 05 Jan, 2012 - 10:33
Banks evidently spend more to process checks compared to ePayments but charge customers more to process ePayments compared to checks. Likewise, they probably spend more to manage ATMs but charge merchants more to process debit / credit card transactions as compared to customers, for using ATMs. As long as such apparent contradictions abound, we're a long way from writing the ATM's obituary - just as checks and bank branches have still not died even in advanced markets despite pundits drafting their obituaries long ago.
Posted: 05 Jan, 2012 - 14:25
I would refer you to Retail Banking Research's Report "Global ATM Market and Forecasts to 2016". It reports a 7.3% increase in ATMs in 2010 to 2.25 million. The only region to show a decline in ATMs was the US - the decline was 0.1%. The report predicts that by 2016 there will be 3.2 million ATMs globally. According to them the major driver is strong demand for ATM cash withdrawals.
Posted: 09 Jan, 2012 - 14:25
mobile phones and local stored value cards will increase the cashless society by an enormous amount, particularly where governments start to recognize the added value they bring. The reduction in tax evasion, and the decrease in adminstrative burden for both business and government, make for a win/ win structure.
The question is whether it is developing countries, such as Kenya and, recently Nigeria with its Cashless Lagos project, that become the trend setters - they have the advantage of short-circuiting lengthy legislative processes - or established leaders in the developed world - who have greater technology options - move ahead.
It may come down to who has the greatest need; that could be the EU where saving 200 billion euros per annum on VAT fraud alone could change the whole dynamic of debt burdens. But the EU is not the most dynamic of organizations (to put it politely!) so where else could we find the leader? China, USA, South Africa, Brazil - or more Kenya-like countries?
I don't know - but I am sure that when a few more examples come about we will see a massive move in this direction - one that really does have great value for everyone.
Posted: 10 Jan, 2012 - 13:26
Hardly ever any need to use cash in Finland. So the fewer-ATMs and number of withdrawals trend has been accelerating for soon ten years. Cost of handling cash in EU is still 50bn a year - something for consumer organizations to realize - that the consumers pay every cent. Not to mention how much crime would be eliminated with elimination of cash.
Posted: 11 Jan, 2012 - 12:55
Let me quote Jim Marous's Resolution #2 for bank marketers from his Finextra post:
"Don't Confuse Channel Economy with Channel Effectiveness"
http://www.finextra.com/community/fullblog.aspx?blogid=6122
Posted: 11 Jan, 2012 - 16:08
Agree with most of your views that the ATM aint going anywhere soon. But it is equally true that lots of banks are cutting down on ATMs due to maintenance costs and costs around cash handling. Also, like Bo has mentioned some matured markets hardly use any cash and it is probably time for the ATM to move much away from just cash handling to a wholesome channel on its own.
Posted: 12 Jan, 2012 - 13:14
1. "...cutting down on ATMs ..."? I don't think so. The report cited in Flora Hamilton's response above seems to indicate exactly the opposite.
2. The Indian regulator RBI's directive to all public sector banks to pool their ATM requirements into a central procurement bucket - instead of each of them buying ATMs separately - has reportedly resulted in >35% savings in ATM costs. Therefore, it's possible for banks to cut down the cost of ATMs without cutting down the number of ATMs. While this India-specific example might appear to lack global relevance, the same could be said of other country-specific examples of low cash usage!
3. One could do a Switzerland-to-India CHF-to-INR cross-border remittance at a UBS ATM in Basel 12 years ago. ATMs in India, Middle East, Singapore and many other emerging markets have been doing lot more than cash handling for more than a decade e.g. travel and event ticket booking, mobile phone recharge, temple donations, inward remittances, etc. If ATMs in certain countries are unable to do much more than dispense cash - in an extreme case, I know ATMs in Germany that couldn't even show the updated account balance post the cash withdrawal from the same ATM! - that's more likely a manifestation of the limitations of the backend legacy systems than of any underlying limitations with ATMs per se.
IMHO, viewing ATMs as solely a cash dispenser is not only outdated but fails to recognize its full capabilities.
Posted: 13 Jan, 2012 - 01:22
Instead of a reduction of ATMs, I think we are much more likely to see innovation around this channel both in terms of funtionality as well as the way customers interact with the hardware.
A new start-up in NYC has created an ad-funded ATM model that charges for and delivers advertising as part of the ATM transaction in return for offering the ATM service free to the consumer. It will be interesting to see what the equilirium of ad tolerance and effectiveness is. In addition, ATMs are beginning to be able to deliver gift cards and other 'currencies' beyond cash which expands the functionality. Finally, there is probably a potential for using the integration of ATMs and phone geolocational capabilities to deliver other units of value.
From the perspective of interaction, I think we will quickly see ATMs function more like tablets than computers as they do now. Touchscreen interactivity and personalization could make the ATM a better customer experience which can extend the life of the unit.
Branches will be gone before ATMs.
Posted: 17 Jan, 2012 - 13:55
With the latest trends in ATM development, i think ATM will have vital role in banking sector. As per The New York Times News paper dt 8 th June 2011, Sberbank , biggest retail bank of Russia is testing ATM with voice analysis and a a prototype of the machine is on display at Sberbank’s Branch of the Future laboratory in a nondescript office building above a Moscow subway station.Further credit approvals by A.T.M. are already a fact of financial life in Turkey.It claims, if they go into commercial use, would be the banking world’s first use of voice analysis in A.T.M.’s.
Posted: 17 Jan, 2012 - 14:08
Cash has been around for 5 000 years and is not going to disappear. But it will be heavily reduced and the remaining 10 - 20% will cost a lot in fixed management cost. Somebody is going to pay for this. In Sweden already some +70% of retail store sales are paid for with cards and grpwth is still +10% p.a. and atm cash volume is some 10% down p.a. The pro:s for cash is anonymity, black market enabler, instant value transfer and no dependence on IT and these are enough to keep it around for the next 10 years. The question for 2015 is if there is going to be a surcharge om cash.
Posted: 17 Jan, 2012 - 14:22
Read BANK 2.1 coming out in May, where I've worked with NCR, Diebold, FirstData and others in examining this question. I've got a timeline on this that first involves consolidation of ATM networks into outsourced hubs as cash declines and banks outsource this capability.
I also look at the question of using ATMs for more than cash dispensing. Clearly, cash usage is in decline, and the long-term effects are a displacement of much of the ATM network globally, but this will happen over the next 10 years.
Posted: 18 Jan, 2012 - 07:10
Dear Brett, here in Sweden the bank owned atm:s are being outsourced to a co owned network with the task to resolve the declining need to withdraw cash by trimming both network size and operating cost. We do not at this point see the alternative use of the atm devices since the mobile phones may well take away from the atm:s the possibility to offer other services like ticketing, access to information over the web...
Posted: 22 Jan, 2012 - 19:39
Thanks all. Some good thoughts there. One big issue I see is the cost of introducing some of these value added services over an ATM as against introducing them over web or mobile devices. I guess to that extent this channel is technologically as mature as others...the focus has simply ot been there and hence the distance to catchup is simply too huge in terms of investments. OTOH it could well be the channel for value added services where smartphone and device adoption is slow.
Posted: 22 Jan, 2012 - 19:41
Sorry..I meant 'technologically NOT as mature as others' in my previous comment.