The impact of ATM usage on the performance of commercial banks

Abstract

The study sought the impact of ATM usage on the performance of commercial banks. The study objectives discussed were; to assess whether the availability of ATMs affects customer convenience, to establish the impact of ATM accessibility on bank’s cash deposits and withdraws, to establish the effect of ATM usage on customer security. The researcher intended to find out how ATMs affect performance of banks by analyzing the behaviors of the customers in relation to the usage of ATM. The researcher also intended to find out whether the ATM users have benefited from the ATM and to find the problems they are still facing like the insecurity in terms of fraud and robberies and the inconveniences they face whenever the ATMs are not working. A cross- sectional design was used whereby qualitative and quantitative data was gathered in order to establish the relationship between the independent and dependent variables The researcher in carrying out the research used open ended questionnaire and an interview guide from a convenient sample of 32 respondents from the Centenary Bank, Kayabwe Branch for the ATM users and the bank staff respectively. Therefore, the data collected was analyzed statistically by using the Software Package for Social Science (SPSS) and presented in tabular form with frequencies and percentages. According to the findings from the research, ATM users have benefited from the ATM technology through easy banking in terms of withdraws and convenience whereby the bank is open 24/7 thus facilitating the transactions to be carried out any time and this has shown that with the advancing technology, both the banks and customers benefit. The researcher found out that ATMs have made a great positive impact on the lives of customers through easy withdrawing of cash at any time without moving long distances. The researcher also found out that with the ATMs, banks get more revenue due to the deposits and withdraws. This is because many people are opting for this technology. In regard to the security of ATMs, customers have benefited whereby they don’t have to carry money but rather use a card which has minimized the cases of theft. On the contrary, ATMs have also brought insecurity whereby customers’ lives are in danger due to the insecurity at the ATM points. Due to the problems that are still being faced by the ATM users and the bank like insecurity, the bank management should strive to increase their security layers to subvert the tricks web scammers use, limit the amount to be withdrawn at a time, provide electronic alerts to customer’s phone for all the transactions carried out on their bank accounts through ATM and the provision of extra security layer that can prevent third party to make use someone else’s ATM card for unauthorized withdrawals electronically. This could limit the cases of insecurity in banks.