ISLAMABAD: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), being the nation's bank has taken special measures to ensure superlative Auto Teller Machine (ATM) services to facilitate its valued customers twenty four hours in seven days (24/7) during the holy month of Ramzan & Eid holidays acoss the country, a senior offical of the bank said.
"The NBP takes immense pride in being the Nation's Bank, keeping in view our responsibility to the nation, we are fully committed to provide modern and up-to-date banking services, in this regard we are in the process of improving and enhancing the bank's technological-base", Syed Ibne Hassan Vice President/Spokesman-NBP Corporate Communication & Brand Management Division told APP on Thursday.
"Thus with growing number of clients receiving remittances, salary and pension in accounts maintained with National Bank of Pakistan, the strengthening of ATM network has been envisioned by Syed Iqbal Ashraf, President of NBP", he remarked.
Therefore, he said that NBP was rigorously involved in increasing the number of ATMs to expand the outreach of services to customers.
Currently, he said around 480 ATMs were installed at various locations across the country and further ATM expansions projects were also in pipeline, the spokesman said.
Besides, he said the NBP has around 1350 Online Branches which can issue ATM cards and their card holders can perform ATM transactions from NBP as well as other banks' ATMs.
Syed Ibne Hassan further said that the NBP ATMs were mostly installed in up-country areas and our ATM network was spread towards the length and breadth of the country (including small cities, towns, remote areas and army garrisons).
"The key constraint which NBP faces while operating its ATMs is electricity issue. As ATM is an electronic device which needs smooth electric connection for its proper functioning", he remarked.
Mr. Hassan further said that the electric Load shedding increase the downtime of ATM besides the frequent Load shedding and voltage fluctuations (especially in remote areas) have also caused damages to the ATM equipment resulting in loss for the bank as well as unavailability of services to the customer.
The Bank, he said has also deployed backup power arrangements like UPS/Generators etc (which is additional cost for the bank) to decrease the downtime of ATMs but the extent of Load shedding is extremely high in some areas and backups of UPS get exhausted and operating the ATMs continuously on Generators is also an additional cost for the bank.
He observed that these Load shedding and power outages are country-wide phenomena and are beyond the control of the bank (primarily being the financial services provider rather than electricity service provider).
Besides, he was of the view said the NBP also faces law and order issues especially in areas of KPK and Baluchistan and during incidents of riots, firing and vandalism NBP's ATMs have encountered severe damages.
It is pertinent to state here that due to the continuous efforts and measures by the bank the downtime of NBP's ATMs is declining gradually and number of transactions is continuously increasing.
Furthermore, the senior management of NBP reiterates the commitment for ensuring uninterrupted services through NBP ATMs. In-order to provide 24/7 services through ATMs especially during Ramadan & Public Holidays, NBP has devised effective mechanism for monitoring ATMs and mobilizing adequate resources for ATMs in order to timely address issues such as casing, hardware, connectivity and power related issues in ATMs.
It is pertinent to state here that NBP has extended support agreement with its vendors providing ATM hardware maintenance which covers extended hours, weekend and public holidays' support.
Moreover, new top of the line servers have been acquired after which the transaction success ratio has drastically increased. Another development in this area is that old ATMs are being replaced with new ones.
The Bank has established Call Center 021-111-111-627 and 0800-11627 special contact that operates 24/7 for customer support. Use of ATM facility will enable account holders to withdraw cash at their own convenience.
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