Austrian banks are now able to purchase state-of-the-art Virtual Teller Machines (VTM) provided by Chinese technology giant Huawei, representatives from the Austrian branch of the company said Friday.
The next-generation ATM machines are designed in part to overcome early closing hours of banks where full-time workers otherwise often miss out, and provide a video telephone option with banking staff, the ability to scan documents as well as fingerprints, and even print out ATM cards.
Additionally the increasing popularity of online and phone banking options has led to the closure of many physical branches particularly in smaller towns despite certain services still being needed.
Huawei Austria Managing Director Jay Peng said the VTM technology will allow for such services previously only available in bank branches to continue to be available.
The machines are already in use in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Huawei is not yet sure how many of the machines will be ordered for the Austrian market, stating it will depend on how extensively banks will want to use the service.
For this they will need to employ staff to be present in a call centre outside of normal banking hours such as during evenings or even around the clock, to be able to communicate via video with customers.
