The withdrawal of high-value banknotes announced in November impacted the business of automated teller machine manufacturer NCR Corp., according to a top company official.
Revenue growth at NCR, , which accounts for 50% of the ATMs in the country, wth fell growth fell from 15-18% (pre-demonetisation level) to 8-9% in 2016-17.
“The slowdown in revenue growth is largely because of demonetisation,” NCR’s India managing director Navroze Dastur said while addressing the media. The slowdown in deployment of ATMs are more prominent among private sector banks.
The company used to deploy over 25,000 machines every year, which slowed down to 16,000 in fiscal year 2016-17 as a result of the demonetisation exercise.
Out of the 2.20 lakh ATMs in the country, 10,600 are deployed by NCR.
However, the corporation said growth is expected to pick up in a quarter and projected number of ATMs to grow to 4.07 lakhby 2021, which is 90% growth over 2016 levels, representing a CAGR of 11%.
Prioritising branches
When asked about reasons behind the recent of shortage of cash, Mr. Dastur indicated that this could be because banks were prioritising branches over the ATMs when it came to allocation of cash.
NCR unveiled a new line of machines on Monday, which can perform many functions apart from cash dispensing like Aadhar-based account opening and giving personalised debit cards instantly.
“These will do 90% of the transactions done in a bank branch at a fraction of the cost. A 2,000 square feet branch reduces to 200 square feet,” he said.
