Turkish banks cooperate for joint ATM networks

ISTANBUL

Following Turkish state lenders’ step to gather automated teller machines (ATMs) under a joint brand, a private lender has struck deals with two major private banks to offer expanded ATM services to its customers.

ING Turkey, the Dutch banking group’s Turkish subsidiary, has signed agreements with private lenders İşbank and Akbank to allow its customers to use their ATMs, said Yücel Ölçer, ING Turkey’s operations executive vice president.

“With these two agreements, more than 12,000 ATMs have been put into limitless service for ING customers,” he said.

Bank customers will be able to carry out all transactions, including balance inquiry, cash withdrawal, deposit and paying credit card debt, using those ATMs free of extra charge, according to Ölçer’s remarks. ING customers can make QR code and foreign exchange transactions without cards only at the bank’s own ATMs.

At the start of this month, state-owned banks - Ziraat, Halkbank, Vakıfbank, Vakıf Katılım, Ziraat Katılım, PTTBank and Emlak Katılım - decided to combine their nationwide ATM networks.

In a bid to cut ATM costs by 1 billion Turkish Liras ($134.45 million) annually, state lenders increased the capital of their joint fintech company, Bileşim Finansal Teknolojiler, to 145 million liras ($19.5 million), daily Hürriyet reported.

Some 15,000 new state-owned ATMs with a common software will be placed across the country. Currently, Ziraat, Vakıfbank and Halkbank have around 7,200, 4,200 and 4,000 ATMs across Turkey, respectively. There are more than 53,000 ATMs in Turkey, according to the Interbank Card Center figures.