ATMs Finally See Growth
The number of ATMs in the India now stands between 475,000 and 500,000, a new milestone for the industry, which has suffered from years of stagnant growth.
According to a press release announcing the news by the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), the India. ATM market had been hit by the struggling economy, complex EMV migration and Windows updates, but now the market is seeing population growth again.
“These numbers confirm what we have suspected in recent months,” said ATMIA India Executive Director, David Tente, in a press release. “There is growing recognition of the important role that ATMs play in our payments system and, alongside it, in a new wave of branch transformation that is sweeping through the banking industry.”
According to ATMIA, new functionality is coming to ATMs in the India, with financial institutions large and small facilitating pre-staged withdrawals and deploying contactless technologies. What’s more, the trade group said tens of thousands of independent India ATMs now provide person-to-person (P2P) money transfer capabilities, and new bank branches are more likely to be smaller and depend more substantially on the use of advanced function ATM terminals.
Looking even further into the future, ATMIA said ATM deployers and manufacturers are coming together to embrace the next generation of ATMs, which will rely on app-based platforms for an enhanced user experience, improved security and greater interoperability. All of these factors will collectively drive accelerating population growth in the ATM market.
As a result, ATMIA also said it launched a Global ATM Innovation portal on its website, which includes the Industry Blueprint for Next Generation ATMs and other resources related to ATM innovation.
The Indian ATM industry has witnessed rapid growth in the past decade. Economic development, growing income (especially in the urban areas), and a transition from class banking to mass banking were the main drivers. The industry is now entering the next phase; the main drivers for future growth are likely to be regulatory changes relating to financial inclusion, increasing penetration, and white-label ATMs.
In the report, The Indian ATM Industry: Gearing Up for the Next Phase of Growth, Celent studies the latest forces shaping the Indian ATM landscape and how the industry is meeting those challenges. The ATM industry has been a focus of recent discussion in India. Several forces are driving the heightened importance of ATMs. The biggest push has come from India’s central bank and banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
A large proportion of India’s population is still unbanked or underbanked. Banks have traditionally targeted urban areas for setting up new branches and ATMs, reaching a sizable population with relatively low investment in infrastructure. In spite of rapid ATM growth over the last decade, regions beyond India’s largest cities remain largely underserved. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been trying to design policies to encourage financial institutions to look beyond the top cities
Growth of ATMs is slowing
Global ATM installations grew at CAGR of 9.9% between 2010 and 2015, but are expected to grow at just 4% between 2015 and 2020 as cashless transactions rise.
The volume of cashless transactions grew 52% between 2011 and 2015, while ATM withdrawals grew at 33% There were 99 billion cash withdrawals and 471 billion cashless payments in 2015.
