ME Bank has reported a sharp fall in ATM withdrawal activity since the start of March when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit Australia.
The number of withdrawal transactions fell by 45 per cent since March, while the total value of cash extracted from ATMs dived 31 per cent.
ME disclosed details of the slide in ATM demand after launching access to Google Pay for debit and credit card customers.
“COVID-19 is accelerating the trend away from cash towards cards and digital payments,” said ME’s head of customer banking, Craig Ralston.
“Our customers are using cash less and contactless and digital payments more, so it makes sense for ME to increase the number of ways our customers can pay digitally with the addition of Google Pay.”