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Is the race to expansion over for India's ATM independents?

September 16, 2016

Independent ATM operators in India are announcing scale-backs of their ambitious ATM deployment plans, even as accountholder numbers continue their dramatic increase, thanks to a government push to bring all citizens into the banking system.

India's Business Standard reported that AGS Transact Technologies, an IAD that had secured approval for an IPO to raise money for planned expansion, has now put this initiative on hold.

Another IAD, Financial Software and Systems, has also scuttled expansion plans.

Market-wide, the ATM installation growth rate slowed from nearly 25 percent in 2014 to slightly less than 10 percent last year, in response to a decline in ATM transaction volume, market-watcher Centrum Wealth Research told the Business Standard.

The decline is the result of a number of changes in the market, the Business Standard reported. These include an increase in fees that was blessed last year by India's reserve bank; the growth of online and mobile banking; and an increase in electronic transactions.