BancNet grows by 43% as more banks, coops hooked up to ATM network

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s largest automated teller machine (ATM) consortium BancNet has reported 2011 as a banner year in terms of growth in membership, network, cardholders and transaction volume.

The consortium grew by 43.55 percent with the 27 banks and cooperatives that joined BancNet during the year, including the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines. A year ago, BancNet added only eight new members, up by 13.5 percent from the previous year.

BancNet now has a total of 89 members, including two affiliate switch networks.

“We continue to attract new members because of our wide range of services that our members and their customers enjoy,” said BancNet president Robert Blas said.

Other milestones reported for 2011 were the following:

*  ATM network grew by 25.65 percent to 5,804 machines, making BancNet accountable for 50 percent of all ATMs in the country;

*  ATM cardholders were up by 24 percent, or 2.4 million, bringing the total to 12.36 million cardholders, securing a dominant 37.4-percent market share.

There were 363.3 million switched transactions for the whole year, up by 10.52 percent from a year ago, translating to an average of nearly one million transactions per day.

“Despite the heavy volume, BancNet maintained its host availability rate of 100 percent,” BancNet executive vice president and chief operating officer Aris Zafra said.

“We are committed to maintain this high standard even as our member banks, cardholders, and ATMs increase further this year,“ Zafra said. “As a matter of fact, we are upgrading our switch system to the latest version this year.”

The peak volume was recorded by BancNet last Dec. 15 at 2.28 million switched transactions, setting a new record.

Blas said among the crucial services that have been attracting more financial institutions to hook to BancNet were the online payment of Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, and Victory Liner tickets using ATM cards.

“Another is the online filing and payment of taxes, and also the online remittance of SSS (Social Security System) contributions and loan repayments, which is very convenient for OFWs (oveseas Filipino workers).

Others are mobile ordering and payment of Ayala Cinema tickets, McDonald’s and Max’s products, and online payment of tuition, according to Blas.

“We are now stress-testing our Philhealth system which is part of BancNet’s e-Gov platform. This will enable companies to electronically send their reports and member contributions to Philhealth,” he added.

BancNet is the only ATM consortium accredited by the Bureau of International Revenue for its Electronic Filing and Payment System (EFPS).