The landscape of banking in India may undergo a sea change.
NCR Corporation on Friday launched the first ever automated teller machine conceived and designed for the Indian market.
Priced at below Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000), the cost of the machine will be almost 40 per cent less than the conventional ATM.
What is more, the new machine -- NCR claimed -- can achieve breakeven with around 750 transactions per week as against the usual number of 1,500 transactions per week.
Christened ASAN, the ATM is much smaller in size and can dramatically change the ATM density in the country by virtue of its lower capital cost and running cost.
At present, over 11,000 ATMs dot the country but an overwhelming majority of them are located in urban in India.
The new machine is designed to meet the Indian infrastructural challenges so that it could be installed in semi-urban and rural locations. Already four banks have initiated talks with the company to buy the machine for their respective counters.
Due to its small size, it could also be incorporated in newer urban locations such as corporate offices and factories, multiplexes, malls and branch extensions.
Deepak Chandnani, managing director of NCR's financial solutions division in India, said ASAN will enable the banks to extend self service banking to the masses without incurring huge capital or operational costs.
"It helps balance the opportunities for the banks in the newer areas with the cost of leveraging them, allowing them to reach new customers and better service existing ones, wherever they are," he said.
The new ATM is expected to contribute immensely to the off-premise explosion in the domestic banking industry which the company believes will happen here at a much faster pace than in Europe.
Keith Taylor, senior vice-president, NCR financial solutions division, said the machines can achieve breakeven with around 750 transactions per week as against the usual number of 1,500 transactions per week.
