Banks close five ATMs every month
KCB is among leading lenders that have shut its automated teller machines (ATMs) following a steady decline in their use as bank customers switch to digital transactions for convenience.
It reduced its machines by 12 per cent to 399 last year down from 454 in 2019.
The bank’s subsidiary, the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) has 105 ATMs.
Another Tier-I lender, Equity Bank, saw the volume of ATM transactions fall 23 per cent to 20.8 million transactions last year down from 27 million transactions in 2019. The Latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows financiers have closed down 52 ATMs in the 10 months to October, cutting their number to 2,360.
This is down from 2,412 machines that were in use in December last year, indicating a steady shift to agency and mobile banking by bank customers as they move away from often inconvenient ATMs, which are mostly located in urban centres, and also from long queues in banking halls.
ATM transactions fell
The value of the ATM transactions fell 17 per cent to Sh242.6 billion during the period.
Equity’s physical branch transactions also took a 26 per cent hit to 17.7 million transactions down from 24 million in 2019, while the value of branch transactions also fell 19 per cent during the year to Sh1.96 trillion down from Sh2.42 trillion.
“Covid-19 accelerated the drive towards transforming the Bank into a digital bank with increased emphasis on digital channels rather than physical infrastructure like bank branches and ATMs,” said Equity Bank. Cooperative Bank also closed down two ATMs last year reducing its ATM presence to 581 down from 583 in the previous year on lower cash transactions being conducted through the machines.
The shift from ATM use to digital and mobile money agency is reminiscent of the move to the use of ATMs three decades ago with the technology considered revolutionary at the time for its convenience.
CBK data indicates ATMs are past their heyday, hitting a high of 2,626 in June 2016 after gradually rising from a presence of 1,581 in July 2009 when CBK started publishing ATM data. BY DAILY NATION
Post a Comment