Bangladesh's ATM penetration is less than one-tenth the world average, but a new partnership between Wincor Nixdorf and ITC Ltd. is helping to address the gap by rolling out new machines in underserved areas of the country.
The country has one ATM per 40,000 people, which compares with the global average of one per 3,000 residents. The new ATMs connect to Q-Cash, the largest shared ATM network in the country, with more than 26 member banks.
Wincor Nixdorf supplied the ATMs, and ITC, its local partner in Bangladesh, installed them on behalf of its 26 member banks. ITC installed 330 Procash 280 ATMs in underbanked regions of Bangladesh, the company announced on May 4. It plans to install another 180 machines by October.
The ProCash 280 is one of the newer systems in Wincor Nixdorf‘s ProCash product family, says Matthew Kovac, the company's spokesperson for Asia Pacific.
"It is the ideal system for extreme conditions,” he tells PaymentsSource. “The focus is on cash handling in challenging conditions in the field.”
Wincor Nixdorf will provide a system equipped with portrait and cash-slot cameras, the company said. The cameras will provide a matching record of the user's features and the transaction in case problems arise over cash withdrawals. The cash-slot camera indicates whether the customer removed money from the machine.
"The concept is to support the banks’ ATM-deployment strategies in partnership with ITC in Bangladesh," says Kovac. "The banks decide where to deploy ATMs, but they are committed to increasing the penetration rate of ATMs to give access to as wide a base of consumers as possible."
ATMs are an efficient and low-cost method of delivering banking services, and they can provide multiple financial services and products, especially in rural areas where going to banks to deposit money may be difficult, the company said in a press release.
"ITC has extensive experience of deploying ATMs in suburban and rural areas to ensure greater numbers of unbanked people have access to basic financial services," Kazi Saifuddin Munir, ITC managing director and CEO, said in the release. "We are planning to deploy further ProCash 280 ATMs based on the system's reliability and performance."
"Self-service technology is a critical channel to give consumers access to basic financial transactions across Bangladesh," Ricardos Khoury, Wincor Nixdorf regional vice president and head of banking for Asia Pacific, said in the release. "Adopting a multidimensional approach to financial inclusion, such as using ATMs, will make a significant difference in serving the unbanked population."
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