CIMB plans to extend ATM Regional Link
CIMB Thai Bank plans next year to hook up its automated-teller-machine network to CIMB in the Philippines, the sixth country of the CIMB ATM Regional Link, after connecting to Cambodia this month.
CIMB Group launched the ATM Regional Link last year so that CIMB customers can withdraw cash and check account balances at 46,000 CIMB ATMs in five countries – Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia – without paying a fee.
Dusanee Klewpatinontha, executive vice president of retail banking, said yesterday that CIMB Thai had raised the limit on cash withdrawals to Bt30,000 from Bt20,000 for general customers and to Bt400,000 from Bt200,000 for preferred customers. Those upper-income customers can also now conduct up to 14 transactions per day instead of 10 transactions.
CIMB customers can avoid the risk of taking or holding cash abroad. With their ATM card, they can make local currency withdrawals at attractive rates.
The ATM Regional Link is expected to pool all 10 countries of Asean by 2014.
In the first seven months of this year, CIMB Thai Bank has seen more than 29,000 ATM Regional Link transactions against 9,000 transactions last year. Activity was especially higher in border provinces, reflecting more satisfaction with using CIMB ATM cards.
In the period, CIMB Thai customers made 11,741 ATM transactions in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia compared with 11,969 for the whole of last year.
Compared with the same period last year, foreign transactions rose by 68 per cent.
The bank aims to expand its ATM card base by 20-30 per cent this year from 220,000 cards currently.
However, the number of cards is not nearly as important as smooth operations. The bank believes that after setting up the core banking system called 1-Platform, the stability will make customers more confident.
CIMB Thai Bank hopes to upgrade ATM cards to debit cards early next year and launch its own credit card.
