NCR Corp installs 4,000 teller machines for SBI in FY20
The deal, primarily for replacement and by a managed service provider, came at a time when many banks are shutting down ATMs citing low interchange fees due to frequent changes in payment policy following demonetisation in November 2016.
Since then, the number of installed teller machines has come down from nearly 2.7 lakh to the present 2.35 lakh. This has also led to some of the very few white label ATM players (unbranded standalone teller machines) like the Muthoot Group quitting the business.
Of the little over 2.35 lakh installed teller machines, as much as 1.1 lakh are NCR made, giving it a market share of over 47 per cent, according to the domestic arm of the 136-year-old Atlanta, US-based company.
It has a manufacturing plant in Chennai and an R&D centre in Hyderabad. Its immediate rival Diebold has about 70,000 units installed.
"Between last October and this March, a managed service provider has sourced close to 4,000 ATMs from us for SBI. This order makes it the single largest order for us in FY20 and also for the industry in recent years," NCR Corp's India head and regional vice-president for banking sales - Asia Pacific, Navroze Dastur, told .
The single-largest ATM order was placed by SBI in 2016 when it ordered 7,000 units from multiple vendors.
On the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant lockdowns, Dastur said the March quarter was normal, or in fact better than the previous year, thanks to the SBI order, but the next quarter is set to be a washout.
While cash in circulation is at a record high of over Rs 25 lakh crore, ATM usage is only inching back to normal. Daily withdrawals have moved up to Rs 8,200 crore now, which is still lower by 30 per cent from the pre-lockdown days.
"But the lockdown has energised us to think out-of-the-box to innovate. Accordingly, we've already started piloting contactless and touchless tellers now as part of our efforts to bringing in safer environment at banks and commercial establishments that use payment machines like large retailers and hotels, among others," he said.
To make the transition more cost-effective, the company is upgrading the existing tellers now.
"We can convert an existing teller to be contactless and touchless by changing the software to match the QR code between ATM and the mobile phone," he said.
Another more advanced development the company is working on is interactive ATMs, or video tellers.
"While video tellers are gaining ground in the West, this is not so here. One is high cost, which is five-six times a normal machine and secondly customer behavior which is not very open to such ideas," Dastur said.
The company is piloting video tellers with three Standard Chartered branches in Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai, and one branch of IndusInd Bank in Gurugram, he said.
The work on these types of ATMs was done in the Hyderabad R&D centre along with the Atlanta headquarters, he said. The machines are manufactured in the Chennai plant.
Interactive real-time ATMs can carry out as much as 90 per cent of the banking job. It can perform withdrawals, deposits, printing detailed statements, scan documents and much more, he said, adding the banker can reach out to the customer from his/her home.
On the Chennai plant that rolls out around 8,000 units a month, he said as much as 70 per cent of production is exported to the US, Australia, the Middle East and many Asian markets.
He further said unless the interchange charges are revised, the banks may not expand their ATM footprint.
Last year, there were hardly any orders for fresh installations but there were around 14,000 replacement orders, he added. BEN ABM ABM