Banks close ATMs amid rise of open banking
The number and volume of cash transfers mediated by automated teller machines (ATMs) hit their lowest point in the last 19 years due to the increased use of online banking, data showed Wednesday.
The amount of cash transferred and withdrawn through the cash dispenser (CD) network, which includes both CDs and ATMs, came to a combined 14.8 trillion won ($11.2 billion) in January, according to the Bank of Korea.
The monthly figure is a new low, breaking the previous record of 14.5 trillion won set in February 2005.
The number of transactions in January came to only 25.45 million. This is, except for February of last year, the lowest in 24 years since January 2000, when 25.2 million transactions were made.
The ATM-mediated transaction volume has been declining since
the peak of 30.2 trillion won in July 2015.
Also declining is the number of transactions since the peak of 60.9 million in May 2015.
Meanwhile, the popularity of open banking services has surged rapidly since their launch in 2019.
Open banking services allow users to withdraw or transfer cash across all banks using only one app.
The amount of funds transferred through the service reached over 60.1 trillion won last month, up 27 times the 2.2 trillion won in December 2019 after the launch of such services in Korea.
The number of transactions spiked to 213.8 million, up 16 times from 13.3 million during the same period.
A growing number of banks are reducing the number of ATMs they operate.
The number of ATMs commercial banks run came to 17,105 as of June last year, down 31 percent from 24,832 in 2018, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.