Turkish Bank Kuveyt Turks is to convert its entire network of ATMs into gold bullion dispensers.
Thus far, all 64 Kuveyt Turk ATMs installed in Istanbul have been upgraded to offer 1 and 1.5 gram ingots of gold bullion as well as banknotes. The bank has contracted with Wincor Nixdorf to retrofit the facility to its national network of 180 machines by year end.
The bank says it wants to become Turkey's leading retailer of gold to consumers, where demand is driven by the local tradition of investing savings in gold and making gifts of gold on the birth of children and at weddings.
Kuveyt Turk is also offering its customers the option of depositing their gold in the bank's safes.
The mini gold bars are not dispensed through the banknote output chute, but via a special coin output module that is retrofitted to the ATM. The gold bullion is packed inside a transparent plastic coin roughly the same size as a two-euro coin.
Germany's TG-Gold-Super-Markt installed a gold bar dispensing ATM in the lobby of Abu Dhabi's five star Deluxe Emirates Palace hotel last year, and outlined plans to roll out 500 of the machines in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
In the US, PMX Gold has set up a banking division with the aim of introducing gold dispensing ATMs nationide follow a pilot run at a shopping mall in Boca Raton, Florida, that saw $270,000.00 in gold sales dispensed through one machine in roughly two and one half months