Banks are expected to witness a big ATM refresh cum addition cycle in the next 12-18 months, involving replacement of nearly 40,000 ageing ATMs, and expansion of network by about 10,000, as per industry estimates, reported Business Line.
All scheduled banks collectively added 4,452 ATMs (automated teller machines) in FY23, with their network standing at 2,19,513 as at March end 2023, per RBI data.
White label ATM operators expanded their ATM network by 4,292 ATM in FY23 to 35,791 as at March-end 2023.
“There will be a lot of churns in the ATM estate because many machines are ageing. They have to be refreshed. There are lot of regulations around ATM hardware and software now. So, it is making the banks change the old ATMs quickly,” Manjunath Rao, President Managed Services, CMS Infosystems, said.
He observed that in the first half of FY24, there were bank ATM mandates for 15,000 units. This reflects their focus on replacement and network expansion. “Private sector banks (PVBs) are moving from cash dispensers to cash recyclers as it will help reduce branch walk ins for deposits. This will reduce the overall operating cost. So, this has caught their fancy. And, public sector banks (PSBs) are not far off. So, some of the major PSBs also, side by side, are putting cash recyclers,” Rao said.
An ATM costs about ₹3.5 lakh while a cash recycler costs about ₹6 lakh. Assuming that 25 per cent of the 50,000 ATMs that will be deployed will be cash recyclers, the overall capital expenditure for banks could be around ₹2,000 crore.
During 202223, the total number of ATMs (onsite and offsite) grew by 3.5 per cent, primarily driven by increase in the number of white label ATMs (WLAs), according to RBI’s latest Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India.
Amongst the ATMs operated by scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) at end March 2023, the share of PSBs and PVBs was 63 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.
At endMarch 2023, ATMs of PSBs were more evenly distributed across geographies than other bank groups whose ATMs were skewed towards urban and metropolitan areas, per the report. In contrast, majority (51 per cent) of WLAs were concentrated in rural areas.
Rao said: “We are following the traditional global model – one branch, two ATMs (one onsite and one off-site). As private sector banks penetrate into SURU (semiurban and rural) areas, that many ATMs will be required. These banks want a branch as a selling point rather than a servicing point. They want servicing to be on self service mode to reduce the cost. So, that cost arbitrage is still there between a self service channel and a branch,” Rao said
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Published: 23 Jan 2024, 05:39 PM IST