China's banks turn to smart teller, video teller machines as ATM numbers shrink

Since the deployment of China's first ATM in 1985, ATM installations rose steadily through 2018, by which times the installed base of bank self-service equipment had reached 1,110,800 units.The 2018 total represented a year-over-year increase of 15.6%.

According to the report China Automatic Teller Machine Industry Report, 2019-2025, offered by Research and Markets, the sudden jump in growth in 2018 is explained by a change in statistical standards that added intelligent teller machines to the self-service equipment category, contributing 12% to the growth figure for 2018.

Separating out ITMs, ATM growth actually slowed from 6.6% in 2016 to 3.9% in 2017, and fell into negative numbers for the first time in 2018.In the fourth quarter, ATM ownership stood at 1,110,800 units, a reduction of 17,700 units from the third quarter.

With the decline in ATM numbers, video teller and smart teller machines are becoming mainstream, providing services such as public-to-private transfer, domestic and foreign transactions, domestic and foreign currencies and financial management.

Major banks in China have begun to deploy this equipment as they seek to control rising wages and real estate costs.China Construction Bank had launched a total of approximately 50,000 video teller and smart teller units as of 2018.

The report asserts that banks will begin to deploy more of these machines to rural areas to form a network and offer more functions to meet the needs of rural urbanization and solve the problem of uneven distribution of machines between regions, between urban and rural areas and between different locales within the same area.

Source: ATM Marketplace