Time to say goodbye to ATMs

ATMs or Automatic Teller Machines are probably one of the most cynical digital beings in the face of the earth if you have spent most of your pay-cheque by the first week of the month- just like me. Their sinister demure smile will keep on breaking your heart till your next payday. If you have observed, even when you have money in your account, your ATM machine out of notes.

You probably would encounter this more often if you are residing out in a small town where replenishing this money-spitting machine is a costly and treacherous endeavour till now. But soon this is going to change. Instead of ATMs, banks in Bangladesh are going for Cash Recycler Machines (CRMs). So what's the big deal with CRMs? CRMs are nothing but a bit suave and sleek version of ATMs where you can withdraw money, deposit money and these will adjust with your bank account in real-time.

Moreover, unlike conventional ATMs, these don't require the bank to feed notes every day. Instead, it can 'recycle' the notes deposited by the customers and adjust the balance sheet in customer and banks end automatically in real-time. To ensure counterfeit notes are not entering the machine, when you deposit cash, a cash recycler counts the currency notes and displays the amount denomination wise and records the serial number of every note. You get to see the amount beforehand on the displays.

All you have to do is confirm if the amount is correct to complete the transaction. All though on a single transaction, there is a limit on how much you can deposit and withdraw which varies from bank to bank. In Bangladesh, these machines have been making their way in Bangladesh for quite a while now. Three banks have already introduced these machines and more are introducing them soon.