Banking group Absa plans to spend R80-million on the upgrade and expansion of its automated teller machines (ATMs) and network of kiosks in the current financial year to the end of December 2006.
The expansion will comprise 350 new ATMs, 115 self-service kiosks (non-cash terminals) and 250 internet kiosks.
About 60% of the ATMs will be in previously disadvantaged areas or areas that have minimal or no banking facilities.
Thus far, a number of ATMs have been installed, with the extended roll-out of the internet and self-service kiosks to start this month. Twenty internet kiosks and eight self-service kiosks have already been installed.
Absa has the biggest self-service terminal footprint and market share (39%) in the country for customer convenience. The systems are user friendly and offer transactional capability in eight languages.
The new self-service kiosks will enable Absa to expand its range of value-added services.
Says Venete Klein, executive director: retail delivery: “The new kiosks are proving to be very popular with large amounts of money being transacted via these terminals.
“Other devices such as cash-accepting devices are also in the pipeline. These will enable customers to transact using hard cash for such transactions as such as prepaid and real-time deposits.”
When customers make a deposit at an ATM, whether by cash or cheque, it can take up to two days for the deposit to be cleared and credited to their account for withdrawal.
A real-time deposit is essentially a cash deposit on the new cash-accepting machine that, immediately following the cash deposit, will enable the customer to withdraw the funds without having to wait for clearing, as opposed to an envelope deposit.
This is because the new machine will be able to validate the notes being deposited to ensure that customers receive immediate credit on their account.
By the end of this year Absa customers will have access to more than 750 branches, more than 6 500 ATMs, approximately 120 000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals in retail outlets and more than 14-million POS terminals globally. — I-Net Bridge