ATM body frames to be manufactured locally

A local manufacturer is set to produce automated teller machine's (ATM) body frame, which would help develop the electronic banking sector even further. Initially, 10 ATM body frames will be delivered by this week and 500 more frames by 2010, to International Acumen Ltd, a private company involved in providing ATM machines to many banks of the country. In recent years, electronic channels of banking, especially ATM, have become popular among the urban population. Account holders prefer to avoid the hassles of long queues on the bank premises during transactions. Moreover, private commercial banks are constantly competing with each other by setting up new ATM booths to provide prompt services to the clients. Industry experts estimate that the cost of importing ATM machines will now reduce as ATM machine's bodies are being manufactured locally. Earlier, the ATM machine's devices, including the Central Processing Unit (CPU), magnetic chip, display monitor and secure crypto processor, were imported mostly from China and a few from Malaysia. Shareq Fahim Haque, director of International Acumen Ltd, said the cost of importing ATM would drop by 50 percent when local bodies will be used. He said now they will be able to sell an ATM machine for Tk 5 lakh, which was Tk 11 lakh previously, as they do not have to pay import duties anymore. “These machines meet international standards and safety and longevity are tested by international experts,” he said. “We will supply these ATM bodies to the major banks in the country and we hope to produce 500 more bodies by 2010,” he added. However, the costs that they incur to manufacture such ATM bodies is substantially lower than the imported ones. Saker Ali, assistant director of Sakiba Engineering Works, a local light engineering products manufacturer at Dholaikhal that manufactured these bodies, said the cost of manufacturing each ATM body is Tk 1.5 lakh. “We have already manufactured 10 bodies, which we are going to deliver to International Acumen Ltd and we are also scheduled to produce more,” he said. He said that initially they built a body as a sample order, which was approved by the company and then they have awarded the contract to manufacture such bodies in June this year. According to Bangladesh Bank data, there are about 600 ATMs in the country, the number was less than 300 just a year ago. Currently, Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited has the largest network with 260 ATMs. The other major ATM market players are BRAC Bank, Q-Cash and Standard Chartered Bank.