News

S. African bank using cellular communication with ATMs in underserved areas

January 20, 2005

ITWeb:The introduction of a financial services charter in 2003 raised many challenges and issues for South African banks, including providing access to banking for the underserved. In accordance with the charter, all South African banks need to provide banking facilities to individuals living in rural areas by 2009.

Mike Arnold, chief executive of First National Bank's self-service channel said that for three years FNB has been installing low-cost ATMs in stores located in rural areas where transaction volumes do not warrant a full-sized ATM. The "mini-ATMs" have been deployed to some 1 200 retail stores around the country.

"Technologically, the terminals broke new ground by using the IP communication protocol; this made a departure from normal full-size ATMs which use IBM's SNA protocol," he said. "The use of IP enables the terminals to use communication networks such as GSM, GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) and Telkom's VIPdial service.

While the ATMs have been on dial-up phone connections, Arnold said FNB planned to switch them to GPRS, since it will allow FNB to rapidly deploy machines to new sites where previously there was often a lengthy delay waiting for lines to be installed.

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