Talking Point: Demonetisation spells new big orders for ATM makers

But it has also uncovered the skewed ratio of ATM machines, as compared to the population, providing a boost to the makers of such machines. As the cash crunch eases, the banks are likely to increase ATM orders and manufacturing is set to get a fillip in 2017, say the ATM companies.

“Annually, we supply about 15,000 ATMs to the domestic market. The banks are focusing on the problem at hand of not having adequate cash. Once that situation improves, they will divert attention to deploying more ATMs. We already have got large orders with us that we will be rolling out in 2017,” Navroz Dastur, MD, NCR Corporation, told IANS. 

NCR Corporation claims to have 47 per cent share in the ATM market. “Demonetisation should push the demand up. SBI has placed an order of 7,000 ATMs with us. Also, Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank have placed large orders that we will roll out this year,” he said. NCR is expecting a 33 pc increase in its ATM manufacturing. “It (demonetisation) should increase the orders as we are going into 2017 with a solid backlog of ATM orders. I would estimate 18,000-20,000 units in 2017,” he added. 

Diebold Nixdorf, another ATM manufacturer, said post-demonetisation drive, banks were keen on more ATM deployment. The company claims to have manufactured around 50 per cent of the existing over 200,000 ATMs in India. “Banks are talking about ATM deployment. We are hearing of more deployments for the rural areas. We are also sitting on a healthy backlog,” says Jaivinder Gill, VP-MD - South Asia, Diebold Nixdorf. “We foresee significant growth. There should be a fair increase this year,” Gill added, while refusing to give exact figures. Demonetisation has shown that India is a highly under-penetrated market as far as ATMs are concerned, Dastur said. There are 150 ATMs per million people in India compared to 350 per million people in China and 1,000 per million people in the US,” he said. India has 625,000 villages and only 40,000 villages have ATMs, says K Srinivas, MD-CEO of BTI Payments.