By Dennise Williams, Staff ReporterWITHDRAWALS of money held in bank accounts by consumers in December using the MultiLink Network are expected to jump by 44 per cent to $2.2 billion from $1.5 billion withdrawn in December 2002.
The MultiLink Network is an electronic interconnected system whereby bank account holders with MultiLink cards can withdraw cash from automated banking machines (ABM) or pay for goods within participating merchant's store using the point of sale (POS) terminal. Edmundo Genez, General Manager of JETS Inc., administrators of the MultiLink Network explained, "Of the $2.2 billion estimated, specifically, $1.4 billion will be withdrawn from Automated Banking Machines (ABM) and $800 million will be from Point of Sale (POS) transactions within stores."
SEVERAL FACTORS
Genez attributed the leap in spending to several factors. "One of the reasons we anticipate an increase in money spent is the increase in utilisation. We have more merchants signed onto the POS system this year than last. In December 2002, we had 5,840 terminals attached to the network. This year, as at September, we have 7,055. There are 100-150 new terminals put on line each month. So between now and Christmas, we project to have 7,400 terminals on line. On the ABM side, we had 272 machines by December 2002 and 299 by the end of September. We anticipate another 6 machines to come on line by December, raising the total to 305 terminals." But a more insidious reason for the projected increase in money to be spent in the upcoming silly season is inflation. Said Genez, "The increases in cash withdrawn through the ABM side of the network is projected to increase by 36 per cent. This is an indirect and rough measure of inflation. It could be that the demand for goods and services has increased but it could also mean that the cost of the goods and services has increased. It is subject to interpretation." Genez goes on to say that the number of transactions in December is estimated to be 400,000 withdrawals from the ABM system with 77,000 balance enquiries.
POS transactions are expected to be in the region of 300,000. The average withdrawal in December is anticipated to be between $2,000.00 to $2,800.00. As at September, the average ABM transaction was $3,069.00 and at the POS terminals, consumers spent on average $2,402 with merchants. Irrespective of how much is actually spent in December, Genez assures The Financial Gleaner that the system will be as close to fail-safe as possible. "Right now, technical failure of the system is less than 1 per cent of transactions.
FAILED TRANSACTIONS
"There will be some failed transactions because of insufficient funds in the customer's account, wrong PIN number entered, or a person trying to withdraw $10,000 when they only have $5,000 in their account. So 88-90 per cent of failures are due to customer actions." Commenting on the major glitch in the system that occurred the Saturday before Christmas 2002, Genez states, "last year there was a problem with the POS network.
"A number of terminals could not process transactions. The ABM network was fully operational, so customers had to go and get cash from the nearest ABM to pay for goods. We had an enormous investigation of the problem. It turned out to be a technical fault with one of the Multilink members, but anything that affects one affects all. The one failed transaction at a merchant's store spawned a number of failed transactions through the system.
TEMPORARY ERROR
The network became saturated with transactions that it was unable to process. It was a temporary error, but because it was the busy Saturday before Christmas, the number of transactions that was processed magnified the problem. We are quite sorry."
Based on the lessons learned last year, JETS has improved their monitoring system. "We act to remove problems as soon as they come up. We monitor the system every ten minutes everyday. Now that the peak demand season is coming up, we are prepared to avoid a system breakdown. We have every reason to believe that this Christmas season we will be prepared and the network will perform."
Over one million Multilink cards have been issued since the network came on stream in 1997. There are 180,000 users on line in any one month. As at September, the Multilink network was used on average by individual cardholders 6.6 times for the month.
