Cash dispensed through automated teller machines in the country have more than doubled to around Rs 55,000 crore (Rs 550 billion) in fiscal 2003 as against around Rs 27,000 crore (Rs 270 billion) in the previous fiscal.
Loney Antony, managing director of Euronet India, says "Cash dispensed doubled on the back of an increase in transaction volumes. Also, more and more ATMs are being set up every day," he said.
Euronet Worldwide is a global leader in the rapidly evolving arena of secure electronic financial transactions, ATM software and mobile banking.
Banks in India are likely to put in an additional 5,000 ATMs in the country in this fiscal and the capital expenditure involved will be around Rs 750 crore (Rs 7.50 billion) with a similar amount on running the infrastructure, said Antony.
There are currently around 8,500 to 9,000 ATMs in India and banks have spend around Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) to set up this infrastructure.
Cash dispensed through ATMs is also more than the total spend on credit cards, which was at around Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) last fiscal.
Says ICICI Bank's general manager, O P Srivastava, "Our ATMs had witnessed 13 million transactions in April 2003, while the amount dispensed through the ATMs was at Rs 1,661 crore (Rs 16.61 billion). This converts to a daily average number of 430,000 or an amount dispersed of Rs 55.37 crore (Rs 553.7 million) per day.
Last year, on a single day before Diwali, Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) was dispensed through our ATMs. On an average, ICICI Bank disperses Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.50 billion) through branches and ATMs and the mix is tilting in favour of the ATMs continuously."
He was speaking in a conference titled 'ATMs in India: Experience and expectations, trends and technologies.'
UTI Bank's senior vice president Hemant Kaul says if India has to reach the density standard of US markets, as many as 500,000 ATMs will have to be set up. And if it has to reach the Chinese ATM density per million, 40,000 machines will have to be set up.
"The likely cost for setting up 40,000 ATMs is around Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) with an equivalent amount in operational costs. ATMs are not the only business which the bank has to invest in. It is doubtful if banks would have the capital or the balance sheet strength to set up such a large grid. We will see independent service providers setting up ATM networks in the country. The cost of manning a single ATM is at around Rs 600,000-900,000 per annum or Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 per day per ATM. These costs will have to be bought down."
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