South Africa's First National Bank is bidding to bring financial services to rural customers with a cashless ATM that doubles up as an online banking portal.
The FNB Slimline machine has a touch screen with an integrated camera for authentication and a chip and PIN card reader with a numeric keypad.
To withdraw money, customers use the machine like a normal ATM, inserting their card, entering their PIN and selecting how much they want.
Instead of dispensing the cash, the machine spits out a slip which is taken to a partner retailer which exchanges it for the money. The retailer's account is then credited by FNB.
The service was already provided by FNB's mini-ATMs but the new machines also offer access to digital banking features, enabling customers to transfer funds and make online payments.
By not stocking cash in the ATMs, FNB says that the Slimline makes it safer and cheaper to provide access to banking services in remote parts of the country. According to the Finscope Consumer Survey, it takes poor customers 47 minutes to access an ATM, compared to 23 minutes for the better off.
The bank has already installed 960 Slimline's in South Africa and has now begun rolling them out in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland and Tanzania.
Aziz Cassim, head, self service, FNB, says: "We developed this as a unique technology to address access to banking in a way that deepens functionality and brings full digital banking to our remote sites."