To facilitate cash withdrawals and fund transfers, Pakistani banks have further extended their network of ATMs. The network has reached more than 14000 ATMs by the end of FY2017-18.
ATM owned by 32 commercial banks have increased to 14,019 this includes conventional as well as Islamic banks. During this fiscal year, 1330 ATM are added at different locations across different cities. The growth rate is depicted as 11.5 percent as earlier the numbers of ATM were 12,689 in last fiscal year i.e. 2016-17.
The cost of ATM has decreased considerably allowing banks to expand their nexus. But in a meantime, operating cost is very high as 24/7 services should be given, despite unreliable electricity and internet services across Pakistan.
2648 ATM are installed Off-site i.e. at corporate offices, hospitals, shopping malls, universities etc. and 11366 out of total are On-Site. Also, in the operation are 4 mobile ATM.
There are 2,324 ATMs, which are also equipped with sensors for biometric authentication. Furthermore, there were 52 Cash Deposits Machines (CDMs) with 34 CDMs with dual functionality of cash withdrawals and deposits. All these ATMs are connected with one ATM interoperable Switch i.e. 1Link.
Despite the availability of a wide range of services on ATMs, cash withdrawals still have the highest volume and value of transactions.
