Diebold Ramps Up in Turkey

Diebold Inc. is ramping up its marketing efforts in Turkey, where an upgrade cycle has made the country one of Europe's fastest-growing markets for new automated teller machine deployments.

But the North Canton, Ohio, company will face stiff competition, because its two top rivals, NCR Corp. and Wincor Nixdorf AG, control about 93% of the ATM market in Turkey.

Diebold opened a four-person sales office in Istanbul this month. It previously marketed ATMs in Turkey through a third-party distributor, said Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen.

Jacobsen said demand in Turkey for ATMs is up significantly, and "as banks increase their capacity, we will be able to keep up with their growth."

Dominic Hirsch, the managing director of Retail Banking Research Ltd. in London, said that Turkish banks were operating 22,586 ATMs at the end of 2008, up 20% from a year earlier.

An influx of foreign capital into Turkey's banking market has resulted in heavier competition among the country's financial companies, leading to more bank ATM deployments, Retail Banking Research has found.

Turkish banks installed more than 3,700 ATMs in 2008, making it the top country for ATM deployments in Western Europe for the fourth consecutive year, according to Retail Banking Research. (The market research company includes Turkey in its studies on Western Europe, despite its location in Southeast Europe and Western Asia, because the country's ATM market began to take off in the early 1990s, at about the same time as many countries in Western Europe.)

Turkish banks are not the only companies deploying ATMs. Talon, a nonbank ATM operator, installed 600 machines last year.

Turkey is the sixth-largest ATM market, Hirsch said, behind the "big five" countries in Western Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Diebold will manufacture ATMs destined for Turkey at its plant in Budapest, Jacobsen said. It has signed a contract with an unnamed third party to service its machines in Turkey.

"The ATM market in Turkey is one of the fastest-growing in the" Europe, Middle East, Africa region, said Danillo Rivalta, a Diebold vice president and its general manager for EMEA-Southern and Central Area, in a press release.

"We also know that many banks currently are replacing their old equipment, and we believe there are a number of compelling reasons for the banks to choose Diebold."

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