Cash-recycler machines are gaining popularity with the cost to run ATMs going up.

Hitachi Payment Services is planning to double its white-label ATMs this fiscal, of which, about half would be cash recycler machines (CRMs).

At present, it has about 2,500 WLAs, and is targeting to have close to 6,000 such devices by the end of this fiscal. Of this, 50 per cent of the new deployments, or about 1,250 to 1,750 devices, will be cash-recycler machines. “We manufacture CRMs in our plant in Bengaluru. As many as 52 per cent of all the CRMs deployed in the market are from Hitachi,” said Rustom Irani, Managing Director and CEO, Cash Business, Hitachi Payment Services.

Unlike an ATM, CRMs can not only dispense cash but also take deposits of money from customers. According to Irani, they are gaining popularity even with banks with many lenders now replacing old cash deposit machines, or ATMs, with such devices.

“Recyclers have many features that ATMs do not. For instance, CRMs check every note they dispense to ensure that they are not counterfeit. The security features of CRMs are much better,” he said, adding that they also cut down the cash handling charges for banks.

“While CRMs tend to be costlier than ATMs, they save huge amounts of time and money as they reduce the requirement of a teller at the bank branch. So, in effect, it is much cheaper,” Irani noted.

According to estimates, about 10 to 15 per cent of all ATMs deployed in the country are CRMs, and the numbers are set to increase further in the coming years.

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