NCR Inks ATM Deal in China

Beijing Commercial Bank has purchased 60 Personas ATMs from Dayton, Ohio-based NCR. As part of the multimillion-dollar deal, NCR will also provide software support.

The agreement represents the latest stage in Beijing Commercial Bank's drive to offer more convenient services and to improve the card-usage environment. Faced with a rapidly growing economy, acute competition in the financial industry after China's entry into the World Trade Organization and growth in the banking business, the Chinese banking industry is adopting advanced technology to enhance sales and develop self-service options.

In recent years, Beijing Commercial Bank has been striving to expand its position in the retail banking market. At the end of the first quarter of 2002, overall deposits exceeded $10 billion, and the bank had issued over 1.6 million bankcards.

Beijing Commercial Bank has now installed over 300 ATMs, self-deposit machines, foreign exchange machines, passbook printing machines and multimedia inquiry kiosks, and has introduced ten self-service banking facilities.

"Emphasis on technology is always the development strategy of our bank," according to Yan Xiao Yan, chief of Beijing Commercial Bank. "We have invested in the recruiting and training of IT professionals to raise the standard of the financial computerizing process in our bank."