Services of 7 public banks consolidated into a single ATM network

The launch of the Turkey's ATM Center (TAM) project, held at the VakıfBank Headquarters in the Istanbul Financial Center, was attended by Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, Banks Association of Turkey (TBB) Chairman Alpaslan Çakar, Bileşim AŞ General Manager Murat Hakseven, and numerous other guests.

Çakar stated that they are very pleased to have brought the Turkey's ATM project to life through the cooperation of 7 banks in the banking sector.

Noting that the ATMs owned by the banks included in the TAM ATM platform account for 36 percent of the total number of ATMs in the country and 40 percent of the transactions performed at all ATMs in Turkey, Çakar said the following:

"Such a scale requires great skill in terms of production, and it also offers very important opportunities for our banks and customers. With this project, our banks will reduce their procurement and operational costs through the allocation of an optimum number of ATMs and will be able to manage their markets more effectively. By facilitating financial access, they will ensure customer satisfaction. Bank customers included in the TAM ATM platform will not pay any fees, charges, or anything else. Considering the austerity measures recently initiated by our government, this project represents a significant step. We expect this cooperation, including ATM software and monitoring, to expand further in the coming period and become a holistic platform. We anticipate that this platform, which we have launched today with 7 banks, will expand and that other banks will join the system. There were requests from a few banks regarding this. I had shared this with Bileşim AŞ General Manager Murat Hakseven, and they have already held preliminary discussions. Therefore, this platform will become an even larger mechanism on behalf of the entire banking sector."

TRANSACTIONS WILL BE FEE-FREE AND COMMISSION-FREE

Bileşim AŞ General Manager Murat Akseven stated that payment systems, which have developed rapidly since the early 2000s, have gained an important place in daily life with new business models.

Drawing attention to the active use of mobile banking and digital channels, Akseven continued his words as follows:

"This situation has impacted time and money costs. Efforts in the banking and finance sector toward the effective and efficient use of resources have led to collaborations such as the shared use of ATMs and POS devices. However, these collaborations for the shared use of ATMs have not reached the desired levels due to the limited set of transactions offered to the customer and the low volume of other bank card transactions. With the cooperation and support of all our public banks, and unlike all example applications in our country and even the world, we have worked on a unique structure managed by a common ATM software that includes the ATMs of our 7 public banks, allowing customers to perform transactions without fees or commissions using their own bank's transaction set without changing the customer experience, and not limited to basic functions such as cash withdrawal, deposit, and balance inquiry, and we have brought the TAM project to life."

Akseven pointed out that the platform's technological infrastructure and architecture were designed to incorporate other banks as well.

Noting that this project will provide significant savings in technology and infrastructure for both central and field operations, Akseven said, "Member bank customers will have the opportunity to access and perform transactions at 5,600 TAM ATMs for now, and at 19,000 in the near future."

News Source: AA