“In our continued efforts to improving our ATM services, BSP is installing 120 new ATM machines and is working to ensure our ATMs are available for customers to easily access cash,” says BSP Retail Group General Manager Daniel Faunt. “So far, 27 old machines in the National Capital District (NCD) have been replaced, with 93 more to be installed by the end of March 2023 in NCD and in Lae. We have seen significantly improved performance from these new machines. Last week for example, the new ATMs installed at Vision City had an uptime of 91%. “These new machines have also been installed at Waterfront, TST 4 Mile, BSP Haus, Badili, Koki and Harbour City. Port Moresby General Hospital, BSP Gordons Commercial Centre and Port Moresby Branch ATMs will be replaced in coming weeks,” Mr Faunt said. In addition to installing new ATM’s, BSP has taken a number of other measures, which has seen an improvement in ATM uptimes. These includes software fixes, improved online monitoring capability, increased level of resourcing for ATM management and training for all technical staff. “ATM outages are invariably not related to cash availability as all BSP ATMs carry sufficient levels of cash and there is more than ample liquidity in the banking system. The quality of bank notes does however affect ATM uptimes and “whilst BSP does a significant amount of work to ensure ATM quality cash is available through our muting processes, unfortunately at times the poor quality of PNG bank notes does impact ATM hardware,” Mr Faunt added. BSP operates a fleet of 330 ATM machines in PNG including 121 ATMs in NCD. ATM outages can be caused by a range of internal and external factors. [caption id="attachment_34494" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] BSP Retail Group GM Daniel explaining contributing issues of ATM downtime while BSP Deputy Chief Operating Officer Guy Thomas looks on.[/caption] “Internal factors include ensuring the hardware and software components of the ATM machines are operational, ensuring there is sufficient supply of acceptable quality notes and ensuring there is available resourcing to manage ATMs both within bank premises and at our large number of remote ATMs. External factors can include general security environment, accessibility of remote premises where ATMs reside, power and backup generator power availability and cash denomination quality and quantity. The vast majority of outages continue to be caused both by note quality and due to more frequent and prolonged power blackouts throughout the country,” he further added. BSP Deputy Chief Operating Officer Guy Thomas said BSP monitors ATMs 24/7 to ensure BSP is aware of issues as soon as they occur. “Many issues are able to be reset remotely, so will result in only a short downtime. In instances where bank notes and cards are jammed, ATMs will require a maintenance engineer to attend to the machine. We have more teams of technicians now operating to ensure they can quickly get to the sites that need support.” Mr Thomas added that the high use of cash in PNG means that many bank notes tend to be of poorer quality than ATMs can handle and BSP tries its best to ensure there is an adequate supply of quality bank notes to minimise ATM downtime. BSP encourages customers to contact the BSP Call Centre if there are any ATM machines that are not operational and BSP teams will attend to them as soon as possible. BSP also encourages customers to utilise digital means to facilitate their transactions including BSP Mobile Banking which is a far more secure and convenient channel for customers to use. Should customers require cash, they can also access cash-back services at all EFTPoS merchants and via BSPs network of over 250 agents nationwide.