Scheduled to start November 2012, these deliveries will mark the first delivery in Russia of a cash-recycling ATM manufactured by a Japanese vendor. Prior to delivery in Russia, OKI's ATM-Recycler G7 accumulated a strong sales track record in China and other regions. The product, a cash-recycling ATM available since 2010 and capable of handling multiple currencies, successfully met Alfa-Bank's needs in trial deployments before the bank chose to move to full-scale delivery.

"The ATM-Recycler G7 uses deposited banknotes for withdrawals, leveraging its cash-recycling function to reduce banknote management and operational costs compared to cash dispensers and non-cash-recycling ATMs."

Russia's market is the world's sixth largest in terms of number of ATMs installed (including cash dispensers, according to OKI's research as of 2011). This figure is expected to keep pace with the country's economic growth.

"A single ATM-Recycler G7 handles 128 banknote denominations of multiple currencies, meeting one of Alfa-Bank's demands," said Shinya Kamagami, Senior Vice President and General Manager of OKI's Systems Hardware Business Division. "The ATM-Recycler G7 uses deposited banknotes for withdrawals, leveraging its cash-recycling function to reduce banknote management and operational costs compared to cash dispensers and non-cash-recycling ATMs."

Alfa-Bank currently operates 2,700 ATMs and has been considering a dramatic overhaul of its ATM network. The new ATMs making up this network required various functions to handle not just the Ruble, Russia's home currency, but multiple key foreign currencies, including US dollars and Euros. In a pilot project running from June to September 2012, Alfa-Bank undertook a trial run involving four ATM-Recycler G7 units. This effort was positioned as part of a strategic plan to improve the bank's network to maintain Russia's leading customer service levels.

"The pilot project identified various benefits of deploying ATM-Recyclcler G7, including handling of multiple currencies and operating efficiencies, based on OKI's proven track record gained over 30 years," said Vilen Timiryazev, VP, Director of Processing Center at Alfa-Bank. "Under the pilot project, we also evaluated other features, including a feature allowing deposits and withdrawals of large sums of cash in single transactions, overall reliability as reflected in uptime rates, physical dimensions (width equivalent to current cash dispensers) that would allow installation in places occupied by current devices and flexible cassette composition that can be changed per places to be installed."

Moving forward, OKI will seek to expand sales of the high-performance, high-quality and high-reliability ATM-Recycler G7 to financial institutions in Russia and in other countries, thereby contributing to efficient bank operations and enhanced banking services.