BancNet reports 43.55% growth

The country’s largest automated teller machine (ATM) consortium, BancNet, said 2011 was its banner year in terms of growth in membership, network, cardholders and transaction volume.

The consortium grew by 43.55 percent, with 27 banks and cooperatives joining BancNet during the year, including state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines. In 2010, BancNet added only eight new members.

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

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

Its ATM network grew by 25.65 percent to 5,804 machines, with BancNet now accounting for 50 percent of all ATMs in the country. BancNet 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 a 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 on December 15 at 2.28 million switched transactions, setting a new record.—Doris C. Dumlao