August 15, 2004
Financial Express: State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to purchase 2,500 ATMs to bring its network to 6,700 machines by the end of 2004. The banking behemoth is in talks with several vendors and service providers; management of the ATMs will be outsourced. About 2,500 of the ATMs will be for SBI, with the rest for its seven associate banks. Currently, the bank outsources the managed services of its network of 4,200 ATMs to NCR. Ajay Swaroop, SBI's general manager of the ATM project, said, "Outsourcing is a good idea as the bank lacks the required expertise internally. However, in future, we would like to take over the functions of the ATMs internally."