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.