by CHARLES MOREIRA
April 2013 - Self-services banking has come a long way since Maybank introduced Malaysia’s first automated teller machine (ATM) self-services banking kiosks in 1981, followed throughout that decade by other banks in Malaysia, both multinational and Malaysian-owned.
About twelve years ago, two Malaysian Companies, Interdeals Automation and HT Consulting conceptualized and helped developed a self-service cheque deposit machine in response to request by a major multinational bank in Malaysia which conceived of it.
The result was the world’s first bulk feed cheque deposit machine adopted worldwide by the world’s local bank. This was subsequently branded as Rototype’s cheque deposit machine and marketed by Rototype International.
Irwin Oh, Rototype International newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) speaks about some of Rototype’s latest innovations in self-service solution.
Cashless ATMs
While already hot in the U.S. cashless ATMs (aka cashless payments or cashless transactions on an ATM), which let buyers pay or goods purchased directly from their bank account into that of the merchant.
Cashless ATM kiosks, such as those produced by Rototype, can be ideally placed on each floor of shopping malls to be shared between participating merchants.
Once the buyers has decided on his or her purchases at a store,the merchants will tally up the cost and out a QR code to be scanned by the nearest cashless ATM. The purchase details with the final amount is retrieved, displayed and verified by the customer before payment is authorized by the customer using his/her ATM card to pay to the merchant’s account electronically.
The machine then prints a high security redemption voucher which the buyer takes back to the merchant to redeem his purchases.
Oh said, “Besides saving on credit card charges, cashless ATMs are also ideal for use by people who don’t have credit or debit cards while most people have an ATM card.”
Rototype international designs its cashless ATM based upon market requirements. The machine and software are concept designed in Asia Pacific and manufactured by its partner in Italy. Rototype International undertakes the final system integration work, including the hardware and related application software. It launched its cashless ATM solution in the US solution in February this year and is scheduled for a Asia launch in Malaysia in April.
Banker’s Cheques and Gift Vouchers
While self-service machines which print out banker’s cheques (a.k.a cashier’s orders) or gift vouchers have been deployed by a major bank in Hong Kong for over four years now, Rototype International claims its solution is the only one in the world which prints out the MICR code line (magnetic ink character recognition) on the blank cheques on demand as a critical security measure.
“The cheques are worthless without this MICR code line, so if any blank cheques are stolen from the kiosk, they will not be valid as the codes will have to tally with those issued by the bank”s mainframe host computer. Blank cheques are also preferred in order to save the wastage on expensive magnetic ink on pre-printed cheques”, said Oh.
“Our Self Service Banker Cheque kiosk are designed in response to a call by Bank Negara for the gradual reduction of cheques usage in Malaysia over the nest ten years.” Commented Harres Tan group CEO Rototype International.
According to bank Negara, more than 200 million cheques are processed in Malaysian each year at a cost of RM3.80 per cheque. Banks therefore spend more than RM650 million per year on the processing cost which they have to absorb themselves since they are not allowed to spread this cost to the customers unlike in the UK and other countries.
With 24×7 convenience available to customers who need to purchase bankers cheques, the necessity for the banks to issue personal chequebook will be made redundant. This represents another huge savings to the banks.