Banks gear up for ATMs, on-line banking services

Banks gear up for ATMs, on-line banking services

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Need to do a banking transaction? Go to the nearest automated
teller machine (ATMs) instead, with banks closed on Friday.

The Central Bank announced earlier that as the year had come
to an end there would be no banking activities on Friday. Normal
activities will resume on Monday.

However, customers who need that must do banking transactions
will not have to worry, as banks have taken the necessary
additional measures to ensure that there are enough funds at the
ATMs and that on-line banking is available.

Indonesia's largest lender Bank Mandiri, for example, has
monitored all of its ATMs and has made sure that those located in
strategic places have enough cash to serve customers.

On public holidays when traffic in transactions via ATMs is
high, Mandiri provides around Rp 7 trillion (about US$700
million) to assure the availability of cash, the bank's corporate
secretary Eko Putro said on Thursday.

ATMs will also be monitored during the weekend and will be
reloaded, if necessary.

Other banks have taken similar measures during public holidays
as the need for fresh funds is common.

Customers can also shift temporarily to phone or on-line
banking for transactions other than cash withdrawals.

Separately, Bank Permata's corporate secretary Imam T. Saptono
explained that his company had not done any additional
preparation, as the year-end holiday period would be shorter this
year.

"We only did what we usually do on weekends," he said.