Frost & Sullivan: Excellence in the Best Practices, Latin America, 2011

In the last 15 years, the Self-Service solutions has revolutionized the customers' banking experience, in particular, the transactions in which they withdraw cash from their accounts. The most important reason for the success of self-service solutions is the extended convenience that they provide. Each machine is connected to other selfservice equipment through computer networks that link institutions across the region.

Customers can access their accounts virtually anywhere from any affiliated machine. Despite the technological advances over the years, cash withdrawals have continued to account for around 80 percent of all self-service transactions over the past decade. Balance transfers and deposits accounted for the remaining 20 percent. In addition to these basic services, self-service solutions revenues fall into two categories: banking and non-banking. Fee-based banking services include non-customer surcharges, premium services such as statements, and account transaction alerts. Non-banking services include advertisements for financial and non-financial products.

While these services account for the majority of self-service solutions revenues, banks and self-service solution manufacturers are experimenting with a variety of new applications such as mobile top-ups, ticketing, bill payment, loyalty applications, and so on. Latin American markets are considered to have the maximum potential for growth. The latest generation of self-service solutions is well positioned to take advantage of the security mandates that are forcing system upgrades. Brazil and Mexico are leading the way in the region as they are fast progressing on their aim of replacing their entire payment infrastructure with the more secure EMV and 3-DESbased ATMs.