PETALING JAYA: Seven Bank has established a presence in Malaysia, the fourth overseas market for the Japanese firm after the United States, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The bank is expected to deploy its automated teller machines in Selangor between October and December this year.
According to an announcement from Tokyo, Seven Bank views Malaysia as a promising market for its ATM business growth as Malaysia's economic growth was at 3.7 per cent in 2023.
Malaysia presented an attractive opportunity for Seven Bank's strategic growth initiatives with a high prevalence of cash usage and a considerable number of ATM withdrawals per capita.
"Malaysia is currently showing economic growth at 3.7 per cent (GDP growth rate in 2023 according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia), and its demographic dividend period is forecast to continue until 2050 with a large proportion of younger generations," the announcement said.
Seven Bank stated that while the total number of ATMs currently stands at around 15,000 or so throughout the nation, the number of ATMs per one million population amounts to 446.
"For these reasons, Seven Bank has judged that growth potential is expected in the ATM business in this country," it added.
Seven Bank also aims to install banknote-recycling ATMs in regions with limited banking infrastructure, particularly within convenience stores.
"As there are few ATMs placed within convenience stores in the locality, we will aim to intertwine finance and retail services by providing new financial services through convenience store ATMs by sequentially installing ATMs in 7-Eleven stores," it said.
Seven Bank is part of the Japanese retail giant Seven & i Holdings Co.