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The world's first portable wireless automatic teller machine (ATM) has been unveiled at the Beijing Banking Exhibition by global technology company NCR.

Using GPRS (general packet radio services) wireless connectivity, the small, battery-operated ATM would be ideal for temporary deployment at events such as the Olympic Games, to be held in Beijing in 2008, said NCR chief technology officer Mark Grossi.

The 'Harp' cash dispenser, designed to be table, wall or frame-mounted, consists of a strong metal box with a lockable front door into which the customer interface is mounted.

With security an obvious concern, the device would automatically dye the contents of its pre-loaded cash cassette. If it was tampered with, the thief would be left with a boxful of useless notes, Mr Grossi said.

'Although it is designed to deliver cash, it could also be used to dispense statements, tickets or tokens,' he said.

An additional selling point was that banks could use it to test demand for cash-dispensing services at potential locations for off-premises ATMs, Mr Grossi said.

'This could be particularly useful in the mainland, where just 50,000 ATMs are mainly on-site in bank branches,' said Rebecca Hu, Beijing-based area deployment manager for NCR.

The Harp was a world-first, unlikely to have a serious rival for at least two years, since it had just come off NCR's laboratory test-bed in Dundee, Mr Grossi said.

With revenues last year of US$5.9 billion, Ohio-based NCR is the world's biggest manufacturer of ATMs, in addition to providing other information technology-based services to both banks and corporates last year.

The group ships more than 50,000 ATMs annually and claims one in three ATMs in service today are its product.

Mr Grossi said an added deterrent to would-be thieves was that global monitoring using satellite positioning systems could accurately determine the location anywhere on earth.

Also on display from NCR was a Web-enabled ATM bundled with a router provided by technology alliance partner Cisco, which offers an Internet connection with sufficient bandwidth to support a range of new product offerings, according to NCR business development manager Dean Vaughan.

The new ATMs would run Windows NT and provide video and voice services as well as offering access to selected Web sites to users, Mr Vaughan said.

'The new generation of ATMs will no longer be cash-dispensing machines. They have become portals to access the full range of banking services available online,' he said.

Samuel Lau, Beijing branch manager for HSBC, cautiously welcomed the new product.

'Of course in the longer term we will watch developments in technology closely, and the new ATM sounds interesting.

'It will depend on how receptive people are to using the Internet as a channel, which depends quite a lot on their liberty to do transactions.

'Presently, foreign-exchange business in the mainland, for instance, must be supported by documents, which places a limitation on the automation process.

'But the direction is to be more liberal in transactions and in the longer run, yes it will be quite useful to banks to use such tools to deliver services.'

According to NCR, the market for ATMs in China has much room for expansion, particularly compared with the United States, which has already reached saturation point.

Where the mainland has only 40 ATMs per one million people, which is the lowest per-capita penetration in the world, in the US the number is 1,153. It is 652 in Taiwan and 410 in Hong Kong.

The company claims to dominate the mainland market. In the past two months, NCR announced ATM supply deals worth US$28.4 million with the China Construction Bank and US$20 million with the Bank of China.

In China, NCR has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xian, Chengdu and Shenyang. Another is due to open in Wuhan by the end of the year.



First wireless ATM unveiled