Megalink, MaxBank start ATM service in Puerto Galera

MANILA, Philippines - Maximum Microfinance Savings Bank (Maxbank) will be deploying its first automated teller machine (ATM) in Sabang, Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro with the help of Megalink, the country’s pioneering ATM consortium.

For the Maxbank ATM, Megalink will utilize the switch outsourcing service or ATMOS2, which allows ATM owners to have terminals at their sites without having to invest in an ATM switch. Earlier deployment of MegaLink ATMOS2 includes the Cooperative Rural Bank of Bulacan with 16 branches.

Maxbank and MegaLink will deploy an additional six terminals in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro; Batangas City; and other strategic sites in Luzon.

MegaLink provides a shared ATM switch and operations support, including card production, personalization and PIN mailer facilities for participating institutions.

MegaLink president and chief executive officer Benjamin P. Castillo said that it offers an ATM switch outsourcing solution that best fits clients’ need, whether for full ATM operations as in the case of banks with existing online core banking system, ATM terminal base and cardholders or as in the case of Maxbank and CRBB, for driving terminals at their strategic ATM locations.

Maxbank is the newest member of MegaLink. It has its head office at Sabang with one OBO or other banking office in Calapan and another to follow shortly in Batangas.

It is a microfinance oriented thrift bank, offering microfinance loans as well as general loans to SMEs. The thrift bank is also a principal member of Visa International, already providing merchant acquiring services.

MegaLink is reportedly the first ATM network to accept non-banks for added touchpoints in areas without bank branches and for servicing the ‘unbanked’. Its non-bank members include cooperative federations such as MASS-SPECC and NATCCO, ATM deployer ENCASH, and electronic money issuer - GXI, a subsidiary of Globe Telecoms.

MegaLink has 22 members with shared resources of 2,921 ATMs, 17,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals and 13.1 million cardholders while processing an average of more than 470,000 transactions daily. With the interconnection to the other ATM networks, MegaLink cardholders have access to nearly 10,000 ATMs and more than 37,000 POS terminals nationwide.