Poll finds Canadians want bank machines to do more

It was 1970. The Canadian Government had announced plans to convert to the metric system, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18, and Canadas first bank-operated ABM opened for business in downtown Toronto. Much has changed in the last 35 years. Today, thinking metric is an inherent part of everyday life, teens are urging the Government to lower the voting age still further from 18 to 16, and long gone is the ABM with cash-only features and static green screens. A survey conducted by Environics Research Group for NCR Corporation finds that Canadian attitudes toward self-service banking are changing, with close to six in 10 Canadians surveyed saying they want ABMs to offer more personalized services. Advances in software now allow the channel to relate to consumers personalized needs, including offering them the ability to preset and personalize their most frequent withdrawals for faster and easier cash at the ABM. For consumers, this means fewer screens to navigate and time savings at the ABM. The study also found that about three quarters (74 per cent) of Canadians who ever use ABMs, would like to use the ABM to make payments or transfer money to accounts like mortgages or other loans, while 58 per cent said they liked the idea of depositing cheques directly into the ABM (no envelope required) and receiving an actual printed image of that cheque as instant proof of deposit. Beginning with the first ABM in downtown Toronto, to the almost 43,000 terminals across Canada today, it is clear that Canadians continue to cast their vote for self-service banking. This country leads the world in per capita ABM usage with almost 46 transactions per person, per year. And with ABMs on almost every street corner, do Canadians really care which terminal they use? Yes, says the Environics survey. When asked whether they prefer to use bank-branded ABMs, or those not connected to a bank or credit union, a whopping 78 per cent indicated they make an effort to use ABMs identified with the name of a financial institution. Survey Methodology Environics Research Group conducted a telephone survey during the week of July 4, 2004, among a nationwide cross section of 1,000 Canadian adults 18 years and older, 835 of whom ever use ABMs for their banking needs. Data was weighted to be representative of the total Canadian adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education and household income. The sample is estimated to be accurate within plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.