Banks continue to place ATMs on every corner

About 308 ATMs, 67 branches were added to online branch network, says review.

KARACHI: As many as 308 automated teller machines (ATMs) were installed and 67 bank branches added to the online branch network in the country in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013.

According to the Payment Systems Review for the April-June quarter released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday, the installation of 308 ATMs brought their total number to 6,757, which is 17.6% higher than the number of ATMs at the end of the last quarter of fiscal 2011-12.

There are currently 10,581 bank branches across the country, the review noted. After the addition of 67 bank branches to the online branch network in the last quarter, a total of 10,013 branches are now offering real-time online banking (RTOB) services. The year-on-year rise in the number of branches offering RTOB services comes around 7.7%.



The review said that on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the number of plastic cards – including credit cards, debit cards, ATM-only cards, smart cards and Islamic credit cards – issued to customers increased 2.5%, thus bringing the total number of plastic cards issued to 22.32 million.

In comparison with other plastic cards, ATM-only cards showed the highest growth rate of about 4.5%. The total number of ATM-only cards issued so far is 962,000, although debit cards have the highest percentage share (90%) in the overall plastic cards category.

According to the review, the volume of overall e-banking transactions during the quarter also depicted a growth of 6.4%, which is equal to 87.4 million transactions. Of all the e-banking transactions, mobile transactions showed the highest percentage increase compared to the preceding quarter. These transactions increased 18% in terms of volumes, reaching 1.3 million compared to 1.1 million in the preceding quarter.

The value of mobile transactions again showed the highest percentage increase on a quarterly basis, as it increased 34.3% to Rs9.9 billion as opposed to Rs7.3 billion in the third quarter.

In terms of the volume of overall e-banking transactions, ATM transactions have a major share of 63.7% and the average value per transaction stands at Rs10,007. In comparison with the number of transactions reported in the third quarter, the overall volume of ATM transactions increased 8% while the value increased by 8%.

The recorded volume and value of large-value payments through the Real Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGS) was 134,738 and Rs41.7 trillion, respectively, the review stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th,  2013.

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