The growth will be driven by large sections of the population that will open bank accounts for the first time
IFM Correspondent
November 21, 2016: Globally, the number of ATMs rose by 5% in 2015, to touch 3.2 million units by the end of the year. The majority of growth in the global ATM market in the next few years will come from China and India, according to Retail Banking Research’s new study Global ATM Market and Forecasts to 2021. The largest contribution to this growth comes from large sections of the population that will be opening bank accounts for the first time.
Encouraging this move are the authorities in these countries who are pushing banks to roll out more ATMs with a view towards providing increased access to financial products and services.
Rowan Berridge, who led the Retail Banking Research (RBR) study, said: “China and India have seen enormous growth in ATM numbers over the last few years and RBR forecasts this will continue as authorities in these markets are determined to use ATM deployment to spread access to financial services as far and as wide as possible.”
Growth in the ATM market by region
According to RBR’s forecasts, by 2021, there will be 4 million ATMs installed globally. The report also said that the Asia-Pacific region will grow at a whopping 46% over this period and account for the lion’s share of this projected total.
The Middle East and Africa region too will see similar percentage growth driven by much of the same factors. However, in the latter region, the number of ATMs in question is in itself fewer by far.
Contrarily, mature markets, which make up a bulk of the other regions of the world, will see lower growth rates to the tune of 7% or less such that the total number in North America, for instance, which will continue to come in at second place with regard to the total number of ATMs present, will be a mere fifth of the total in the Asia-Pacific region. To appreciate the rate of growth in the latter region, it must be borne in mind that as recently as the early 2000s, these regions had a similar number of ATMs.
All regions of the world saw an expansion of the ATM market in 2015, barring Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Here, the number of ATMs fell, although only by a count of 7,000, owing to Russia and Ukraine dropping terminals due to economic woes.
Use of cash continues to grow
Despite significant growth in sales through card and mobile transactions, cash withdrawals continue to see an increase even in mature markets, such as Western Europe and North America, suggesting the resilience of cash usage.