Slide in ATM use accelerates
The long-term decline in ATM usage gained momentum in the year to June.According to the latest Reserve Bank figures, consumers made 56.3 million cash withdrawals from ATMs each month, on average, during the 2015/16 financial year.That is a 6.6 per cent fall compared with the 2014/15 financial year, when consumers made 60.3 million withdrawals a month on average.The rate of decline has picked up. The number of ATM withdrawals fell 4.9 per cent from 2013/14 to 2014/15.Back in 2010/11, when ATM use peaked, the number of withdrawals was close to 70 million a month on average. There has been a fall in usage of close to 20 per cent since then.The value of ATM withdrawals in 2015/16 was an average of A$11.6 billion a month, compared with $11.8 billion a month in 2014/15 - a fall of 1.7 per cent.The rate of decline between 2013/14, when withdrawals were worth an average of $12 billion a month, and 2014/15 was also 1.7 per cent.The value of ATM withdrawals has declined more slowly than the number of withdrawals, falling by between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent over the past few years.