Growing consumer demand for ATM cash-withdrawal options is helping drive deployments in the Asia-Pacific region as expansion slows in mature markets such as North America and Western Europe, new research indicates.
ATM deployers in the Asia-Pacific region installed over 100,000 new ATMs in 2010, which was the highest ever for any region, according to United Kingdom-based Retail Banking Research Ltd. Those machines accounted for 14% from 2009. The firm did not release total ATM deployments from 2009.
China saw half the growth in the Asia-Pacific region as consumers there sparked a 50% increase in the volume of cash withdrawals, according to the report. India, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand accounted for another 33% of deployments as some countries attempt to increase ATM locations in the face of growing populations.
Growth in Latin America also helped to offset the decline in mature markets, according to the report.
Brazil accounted for 66% of the region’s new installations as Banco do Brasil S.A. and Tecnologia Bancária S.A. were mostly responsible for the deployments. Overall, the Latin America region experienced an 8.4% growth in 2010 compared with the previous year.
ATM deployers in Iran and Nigeria had fewer new installations in 2010, which led to a decline compared with 2009, according to the report.
Iranian banks increasingly face challenges from the effect of sanctions related to the government’s refusal to suspend operations that might be related to developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Nigerian deployers were forced to surrender the majority of their off-premise machines to comply with new regulations related to fraud.
The North America market saw ATM deployments decline 0.1% in 2010 compared with 2009. Overall, the global machine base increased by 150,000 in 2010, maintaining the same level as the previous two years. The total number of ATMs worldwide reached 2.55 million at the end of 2010.
Retail Banking Research predicts worldwide ATM deployments will reach 3.1 million by 2016. An executive was not immediately available to comment on the report.
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