Note recycling machines are gaining ground
Gradually replace ATMs, CDMs
Thu Aug 18 2022 8:30 AM Last updated on: Thu Aug 18 2022 9:38 AM
Amid the growing use of ATMs, ATMs or cash machines, which allow cash withdrawals, will gradually become obsolete, bankers say. Photo: Star/FILE
“>
Amid the growing use of ATMs, ATMs or cash machines, which allow cash withdrawals, will gradually become obsolete, bankers say. Photo: Star/FILE
Automated Teller Machines (CRMs), introduced by banks in Bangladesh to help customers deposit, withdraw and transfer money instantly, nearly doubled in the last financial year.
In 2021-2022, banks installed 917 such machines, bringing the total to 1,821, up nearly 99% from a year ago, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
For all the latest news, follow the Daily Star’s Google News channel. The new technology was introduced in Bangladesh in 2017.
Since then, banks have been installing more and more CRMs as they offer a number of basic banking services, reducing customers’ reliance on branches and giving them more freedom to conduct financial transactions whenever they want. wish since the machines operate 24 hours a day.
A CRM can accept cash, count bills, authenticate them and credit the amount to accounts in real time, helping banks eliminate the manual work needed to provide the service.
It also allows users to deposit and transfer funds to other accounts.
Rural parts of the country have seen a huge increase in the number of CRMs installed. Banks implemented 159 CRMs outside major cities in FY22, a 120% year-over-year increase from 133 units in the prior fiscal year.
They installed 745 CRMs in urban centers, bringing the total number to 1,529, an increase of nearly 95% from the previous year, according to central bank data.
Transactions via CRMs increased to Tk 6,069 crore in June, more than double from Tk 2,928 crore in the same month last year.
“The number of CRMs is growing rapidly because the machine has the ability to deposit and withdraw in real time,” said Ziaul Karim, communications and external affairs manager at Eastern Bank Ltd.
CRMs have reduced the need for many customers to visit branches, reduced the pressures on banks and reduced the frequency of loading cash.
“As a result, operating costs are streamlined. It is also the best source for instant cash deposit to cards and accounts,” Karim said.
Currently, 16 banks are using CRMs across the country. EBL has set up five CRMs and 50 more will be installed in the next four months.
Amid the growing use of CRMs, automated teller machines (CDMs), which only allow cash deposits, and automatic teller machines (ABMs), which allow cash withdrawals, will gradually become obsolete, according to the bankers.
There were 1,699 CDMs across the country at the end of FY22. It stood at 1,664 at the end of FY21, according to BB data.
No new CDMs have been introduced in rural areas since December, when the number of such machines fell to 505.
The number of ATMs rose 6% year-on-year to 13,036, with banks installing 699 new ATMs since June last year.
Users used ATMs to transact Tk 28,456 crore in June, a 58% year-on-year increase. It was Tk 18,059 crore in the same month in 2021.
Karim believes that since ATMs are only used for cash withdrawals, CRMs will replace them in the next five to seven years.
The number of point-of-sale (POS) devices, which allow merchants to accept card payments, rose 23% year-on-year to 101,341 in June, underscoring the shift to digital transactions. Devices installed hit the one lakh mark in April.
Transactions through POS devices amounted to Tk 2,170 crore in June, up 26% from Tk 1,723 crore a year earlier.
As banks increasingly turn to digital means of delivering services and customers find them convenient, the number of branches grew only 2% to 10,980 in the last fiscal year.
Banks opened 192 new branches during the past financial year, the majority of them in rural areas.
Some 107 branches were established in rural areas, bringing the total number of outlets beyond cities and towns to 5,243.
The total number of branches in urban areas was 5,737, and 85 new branches opened in FY22.
All but one of the branches offer full-fledged online services.
A central banker says branch-run banking is already in decline due to the spread of internet banking, which lowers operational costs for financial institutions. Internet banking transactions have more than doubled over the past fiscal year.
Mobile financial services are also growing.
There were 17.86 crore MFS customers at the end of last fiscal year transacting 94,293 crore Tk in June alone, up 19.89% year-on-year.