Hitachi Payment Services and Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions announced they have deployed more than 10,000 cash recycling machines (CRMs) in India. Hitachi is the first company to deploy this number of CRMs in India and has assisted in reducing cash in circulation. The company has installed these CRMs for over 40 banks including public, private, cooperative and small finance banks. Currently, India has 2.5 lakh ATMs of which over 20,000 are CRMs. These CRMs are being manufactured in Bengaluru under the aegis of the Make-in-India program by Hitachi Terminal Solutions India, a subsidiary of Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions and an associate company of Hitachi Payment Services. This facility would also support the company’s plans to export CRMs to other Asian markets. Loney Antony, MD, Hitachi Payment Services, said since CRMs are interoperable, there is a big revenue opportunity for banks to deploy CRMs. About 25% of the country’s ATMs are more than 8 years old and would come up for replacement / upgrade. With the interoperability revenue opportunity, cost and operational efficiency that the CRM technology provides for, it is a better alternative to the traditional ATM and would help financial institutions in their automation strategy, he added.
