Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Number of ATMs in China shrinks by 80,000 in 2020
In China, the number of Automatic Teller Machines, or ATMs, per 100,000 adults was 84 in 2017, 97 in 2018, 95 in 2019, and 72 in 2020. You can see a rapid increase from 2017 to 2018 and then a sharp decline from 2019 to 2020, or 80,000 fewer ATMs last year alone. These changes clearly show how much Chinese people are relying on non-cash payment, mobile payment in particular recently. In fact, the transaction volume of bank deposits and withdrawals started to decline in 2015 but banks had been adding more ATMs until 2018. Indeed, ATMs are expensive devices to produce and operate. You can easily imagine that ATMs must be guaranteed the highest quality and precision as they count bills and coins accurately and provide the exact amount of cash. Also, they need to be collected and supplied cash from time to time, which involves costly transportation with security. Furthermore, they need to monitored constantly for security reasons. When China’s central bank rolls out digital currency in near future, those who have smartphones will mainly or almost only use Alipay, WeChat Pay, or Digital Currency in China even though cash will stay at least for a while. Will foreign travelers be able to use such non-cash payments in China?
Enjoy reading the article and think about the day when there are no ATMs even in a bank.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202104/02/WS6066d6c9a31024ad0bab3595.html
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