Banks withdraw ATMs in hotels, shopping malls

John Omachonu & Ben Uzor Jr
Some commercial banks on Wednesday commenced the process of shutting down their Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in hospitality homes and shopping malls, in compliance with the CBN's directive. The CBN had in June 2009 directed all banks to remove their ATMs from public places, following complaints by their customers on the rising cases of fraud and robbery.
It gave the banks March 31, 2010 deadline to withdraw the ATMs, and restrict their operations to bank premises only. Our correspondent who visited Grand Square, a major shopping mall in Abuja, shows that the ATM installed in the premises by First City Monument Bank (FCMB) had been demobilised.
Those installed by Zenith Bank Plc at Cedi Plaza and Reiz Continental Hotel respectively have also been put out of service. Abdulhameed Idris, an ATM user, said the shutting down of the ATMs had not had much adverse effects on customers, since there were alternatives in most of the public places in Abuja. “Most of the banks have their branches in key shopping malls in Abuja, making it easy for customers to access their ATMs.
Another ATM user, Moses Ekpo, said that he uses the ATMs mostly at the weekends when the banks had gone on break, noting that it would not be difficult to locate a payment point. Ekpo, who resides at Mararaba, Nasarawa, said most of the bank branches in the area also operated ATMs, explaining that it would still be easy for customers to access them at the weekends. A source at the CBN said that the apex bank regulatory body had started monitoring compliance by banks before rolling out sanctions.
Meanwhile, BusinessDay investigations revealed that the level of compliance so far recorded was based on equity holding of banks in the Automated Teller Machines-Consortium. It was further gathered that the struggle for market share of Nigeria’s off-banking sites ATM network may have begun, as newly licensed Independent ATM Deployers (IADs) battle the incumbent, Automated Teller Machine Consortium (ATM-C) to take over banks ATM networks.
CBN recently granted two Consortiums, Chams Access and CSS approval-in-principle to operate as ATM consortium in Nigeria. The apex bank, however, said it would conduct a post approval-in-principle visit to firms in April 2010 to ensure their readiness and compliance with the requirements. This brings to three the number of IADs in Nigeria’s ATM market. These IADs will be solely responsible for the deployment of ATMs at off-banking sites.
Reliable sources informed Business Day that the IADs have commenced frantic lobbying at the banks with various incentives to persuade the banks’ management to transfer their off-banking sites cash machine to them, even before final approval by CBN. Consequently, some banks are said to be reluctant to comply with the hope that their choice consortium would soon commence operation.
Moreover, others have also solicited for the extension of the date to weigh the options available when the two additional licensed independent ATM deployers, Chams Access and Cooperative Support Services start operation fully.