Banks struggling to comply with BOJ's service standards for ABMs

By Nakinskie Robinson   

 

Down time for several automated banking machines (ABMs) remain below the service level standards implemented by the central bank for deposit-taking institutions.

 

Deputy Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Dr. Jide Lewis, says the operational time for several ABMs hovers between 5 and 6 per cent below the BOJ's service standards. 

 

"Ninety per cent of those ABMs by banks should be operational. And banks have been meeting and exceeding that target consistently since the standard has been implemented. Where we notice the improvement not being as strong is in terms of uptime. So uptime has to do with how long the ABM is operational during the month. And entities have been hovering between 89% and 90%, which is below the standard of 95%," he noted.   

 

As at September 2024, there were 899 ABMs installed across the country, up from the 871 at the end of September 2023.

 

Dr. Lewis, however, pointed out that the down time is as a result of system upgrades. 

 

"Primarily, what we have understood is that as they have changed out the old ABMs for newer ABMs, but they have had operational issues in terms of calibrating those new ABMs to the currency denominations and other factors. So there's been a trade off in terms of more ABMs being installed and more being operational, but the uptime not being at the standard."

 

Still, he said there has been a significant decline in ABM faults, down from 258,000 reported in January to 105,000. 

 

Dr. Lewis, who was addressing a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament on Tuesday afternoon, said recovery time for ABMs has moved from more than 10 hours down to just over three hours across urban and rural areas.

 

This is, however, still below service standards which mandate a one-hour recovery timeline for out of service machines. 

 

In the meantime, of the eight deposit-taking institutions that offer retail services, none has managed to attain full compliance with the six service level standards for the operation of ABMs set by the central bank.

 

The standards were issued on April 2 and DTIs were given until January 2025 to fully comply.

 

The deputy BOJ governor said the standards relate to security, financial education, fraud minimisation, availability of cash, maintenance and management of disruptions as well as accessibility and ease of use. 

 

He said commercial banks say setbacks including Hurricane Beryl have affected their ability to comply with the ABM service level standards.

 

Additionally, some banks have requested that they be given until the end of March and a few others until the end of June next year to become fully compliant with the standards.

 

The BOJ implemented the service level standards following constant complaints from members of the public about issues with ABMs including the unavailability of cash and frequent downtimes.