Five decades after the registration of the first automatic teller machine (ATM) patent, on June 4, 1973, in the United States, the invention is still part of the daily lives of consumers around the world and Portugal is no exception. Innovation reached the national territory in September 1985, with the creation of the Multibanco network by SIBS and, although the country was one of the last in Europe to join the movement, an ecosystem of services developed here that is among the most advanced today.
And that is not a coincidence. Inserting the bank card into a Multibanco ATM gives access to a portal with more than 60 possible transactions, from cash withdrawal to payment of services, taxes, not to mention recharging mobile phones or even tickets.
“Many of these operations were absolutely innovative on a global level at the time of their introduction,” assures Teresa Mesquita. The product manager of SIBS attributes the creation of this network to a search, in the eighties, for more efficiency in the relationship between customer and banking.
This transformation was, in fact, the first of several chapters of the industry’s digital transition – first with ATMs, then with the home banking and now with mobile applications. “There are no other cases [no mundo] where this digitization factor was accelerated so early,” adds the person in charge.
Currently, more than 5 million people in Portugal use MBway, the service that brought ATMs and many of their services to mobile phones. “We can connect the ATM to the mobile phone to withdraw money from the machine using a code that we generate on MBway,” is an example from Teresa Mesquita.
Counters falling for 20 years
Like all innovations, the introduction of ATMs and the digital revolution that followed had an impact on the way people use banking services. If 40 years ago, before the creation of the Multibanco, it was necessary to go to a counter to withdraw money or make a transfer, now you can do it all from an ATM, a computer or a mobile phone.
The consequence of these changes can be seen in the sharp decline in the number of physical branches of financial institutions – data from Banco de Portugal shows that between 2010 and 2021 banking service spaces fell by 50%, from about 7,000 to about 3,500. the closure of bank branches where these counters are usually located.
Still, according to Eurostat, Portugal is the second country in the eurozone with the most ATMs per capita, just behind Austria. The country has 1.4 ATMs per 1,000 inhabitants [média de] 0.67 in Europe. It’s an interesting song,” adds Teresa Mesquita.
In addition to the capillarity of ATMs on the national territory, the volume of annual transactions reflects the importance of these ATMs in the daily life of the population. Pordata data compilation indicates that more than 64 million payments were made through the Multibanco network in 2021, in addition to more than 343 million cash withdrawals. Converted to euros, this means that 26.4 billion euros were withdrawn from these ATMs and 5.9 billion euros were paid for services.
The banking sector today has fewer branches, fewer ATMs and a growth in the use of digital services. Incidentally, statistics from the Portuguese Banking Association (APB), which brings together 24 entities representing 90% of the system, show the use of home banking has increased in number of transactions and in the value of operations.
The latest data from the APB shows that between 2018 and 2021, the number and value of transactions increased by 11.5% and 9.7% respectively. The number of users (referring to just 13 of APB members) increased by 10.3% in 2021 compared to the previous year, reflecting “the increasing use of digital banking, a trend that has been more dynamic due to the context of the pandemic crisis”.
Export Portuguese innovation
Portugal is often cited as a preferred area for market testing, not only because of its size, but also because of the appetite the Portuguese seem to have for technology. Multibanco is no different. “We have launched a similar network in Romania and we have an ATM network in Poland. This system is part of our internationalization journey,” explains Teresa Mesquita.
SIBS also provides technological support for ATMs in Angola, Timor and São Tomé and Príncipe, but in all regions where the national company is present, fewer services are available than in Portugal, which is still the market with the most complete and diversified ecosystem.
Source: DN
