PHILIPPINE Seven Corp., which holds the master franchise of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the country, is set to bring Seven Bank’s white automated teller machines (Atms) in the country.
In its disclosure, the company said it signed a deal with Pito AxM Platform Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven Bank Ltd. of Japan.
Under the deal, the company will deploy cash recycling machines in its stores. It will begin deploying the white atms in June and hopes to equip all of its stores with such kind of money machine in the next few years.
The said machines can dispense cash deposited there by 7-Eleven stores and also the customers of the platform’s banks.
Seven Bank is the world’s largest operator of ATMs, surpassing 25,000 machines in its home country alone.
Jose Victor P. Paterno in June last year already discussed the possibility of the convenience store operating and having its own white ATMs in its stores.
Paterno said it takes time to talk with the local banks. The 7-Eleven stores itself can use the ATMs themselves by depositing their sales money into the machine instead of hoarding the cash in the stores, a risk that can attract robbers.
“If we want, we could have operated tomorrow. We should have an agreement with different banks. After the agreement, there’s still a system integration. So it takes time,” Paterno said, adding that it still has to strike a deal with a bank.
For starters, Paterno said it wants to operate some 300 white ATMs, within the Metro Manila area.
The company wants people to visit their stores buying their products or using their services, such as the money transfers or electronic mobile phone loads to drive in foot traffic ahead of other stores.
“Over the past year, we’ve realized that serving the customers’ needs and giving them more reasons to visit the store leads to higher consumption,” Paterno said.