George Mayes, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Diebold was in South Africa recently and Hi-Tech Security Solutions managed to gain a few minutes of his time to talk about what Diebold was doing in the country and globally with respect to its ATMs.
While the public may consider ATMs to be boring old machines we have to use to draw cash, the reality is different and there are significant technology strides being made in this area of the cash handling market, especially in the developing markets. When Mayes joined Diebold in 2005, the company built 405 ATMs at its premises in India, this year it will build 15 000.
In South Africa alone, Diebold has around 10 500 ATMs installed for various customers. Standard Bank is its biggest customer, but the company does business with others, such as Capitec, Nedbank, FNB and so forth.
Part of the reason for the company’s growth is that cash is still king, despite the hype about mobile or cashless payments. He says in the developed market, cash use was down 0.001% in the past year, while it’s on the rise in emerging markets. And it’s in these markets where there is enormous potential as there are significant numbers of unbanked or under-banked people who need to be serviced.
Advancing technology and security
One of the major problems banks are likely to face right now is the number of ATMs out there running Windows XP. XP is no longer being supported by Microsoft, which means there are no more bug and security fixes being released, making it a delicious target for cyber criminals. Mayes says the upgrade process to Windows 7 is well under way in South Africa and globally.
The company is also focused on dealing with other security threats, such as electronic and manual skimming of cards by criminals who mess with the card slots in machines, as well as ways to prevent external skimming by trying to put a different keyboard on the ATM etc. He says there are technical ways Diebold is combating these crimes, as well as manual ways in terms of educating consumers.
Two-factor authentication is becoming more accepted in ATMs and biometrics will play a significant role in securing these machines and their users in future. Diebold has done significant work on biometrics globally, with some ATMs in South America requiring palm-vein biometrics combined with the customer’s PIN. In other areas, voice or iris recognition is required by some banks for internal use.
Instead of mobile technology replacing cash, what we may see in certain areas is banks using NFC (near field communications) or similar technology, for example, to allow customers to use their mobiles as an additional authentication method when accessing their accounts via ATMs.
Emerging markets
Understanding the need to get the unbanked on board, Diebold is also focused on making ATMS more emerging market friendly. It is rolling out a new ATM in India that is biometrically enabled, but requires low power to keep it running. This machine is destined for rural areas where electricity is a problem (or in South Africa it could be deployed anywhere), and comes equipped with two batteries that will keep the system running for four hours without power (again, convenient for Eskom blackouts). It is also rigged to operate with a solar panel.
Multimedia branches
One of the areas in which there is tremendous interest is the so-called unmanned branches where customers will serve themselves via multimedia kiosks. Diebold has a division focused on this and has done a number of consultations over the years. The idea Mayes says, is to find new and innovative ways to add value to customers, such as providing self-service, but enabling customers to speak to a consultant via two-way video if necessary – a virtual concierge if you will. It’s all about convenience.
In describing the South African market, Mayes says it is on par with the markets in the EU and US. Diebold has been in the market for a long time and plans to remain here as a significant player in the future.
© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd. | All Rights Reserved.
printer friendly version