ATMs come back on line

John Kavanagh

Access to ATMs has recovered in the September quarter as most parts of Australia come out of COVID lockdown.

The Australian Payments Network has updated its device statistics, reporting that there were 27,282 ATMs operating in the September quarter, compared with 25,719 in the June quarter.

The September quarter number is slightly below the March quarter figure of 27,870.

The number of ATM terminals operating in Australia has been in decline for several year, matching the declining use of cash. The peak was in September 2017, when AusPayNet reported that there were 32,275 ATMs in operation.

The number of merchant payment terminals also recovered from the June low. AusPayNet reported that there were 917,747 operating in the March quarter, falling to 895,957 in the June quarter and then picking up to 904,560 in the September quarter (inactive terminals are not counted).

The AusPayNet report follows last month’s release of APRA’s annual points of presence survey, which shows the level of ADI branch level services fell from 5314 to 5173 in the year to June.

Other face-to-face points of presence fell from 4593 to 4183 over the same period.