Do Digital Payments Inevitably Increase Financial Inclusion?

Geldmaat spoke at the ATMIA summit following on directly after the Dutch National Bank. It described how it came into being and the challenges it faces.

With cash volumes falling in the Netherlands the decision was taken by three big banks to combine their ATM networks into a new, separate organisation called Geldmaat. 9,000 ATMs were migrated to a network of 5,000 machines for notes, coins, withdrawals and deposits. The new system had one common user screen and was run on a new platform rather than using what had existed previously.

Location

A location policy was established so that, as the crow flies, every home was within 5 km of an ATM. To complicate the task, the ATMs could not now be located as part of bank branches. The decision was made that they should be where people actually need and want to spend their money.

Geldmaat put ATMs accessible from the street, ‘through the wall’, in shops with high footfalls such as supermarkets, book shops and convenience shops, in its own Geldmaat shops (which provide all services) and, for coins, in hardware shops. Coins are noisy and so putting coin machines in hardware shops meant the noise was less intrusive. More ATMs had been planned through the wall, but widespread physical attacks on ATMs led to a change in policy.

The development of Geldmaat stores was partly a response to the decline in bank branches. Stores offer both cash services and banking services.

Trust

The Geldmaat brand needed to build the trust of society. To do this, it emphasised that it had come from the largest three banks and was approved of by the central bank. The common software template and look and feel of the machines made them easy to use. The branding made clear this was a Dutch organisation.

Performance

With a population of 17.8 million people in 352 municipalities and 2.6 million people who are not ‘digital’, Geldmaat now has: 

• 3,850 ATMs - 92.59% of the population are within 20 minutes drive

• 1,300 cash recyclers - 92.59% of the population are within 20 minutes drive

• 450 sealbag machines (packed deposits) - 98% of the population are within 20 minutes drive

• 170 coin withdrawal machines - 98% of the population are within 20 minutes drive

• 547 coin deposit machines - 80.6% of the population are within 20 minutes drive.

These 5,017 machines are in 3,725 locations.

The availability targets for ATMs are 97.5%, recyclers 96.5%, sealbags 98%, coin withdrawals 98% and coin deposit machines 96.5%.

Challenges

In addition to the changing cash environment in the Netherlands, Geldmaat identified three current challenges.

• Safety: how to deal with criminal attacks such as explosive attacks and ‘cash trapping’

• Findability: how to get people to use new locations for cash services and how to find an in-store ATM 

• Cost: how to keep cash affordable as volumes fall

The final comment was that the back up to a digital payment failure will not be cash in the future. There are not enough machines or the ability to restock them fast enough in the event of a problem.