Unfriendly atmosphere: ATMs do not accept new five thousand dollar bills
ATMs do not accept new five thousand dollar bills. This is a problem faced by customers who use Alfa and VTB devices. Two eyewitnesses told Izvestia about this, and the difficulties in the market are confirmed by the credit organizations themselves. The Central Bank announced the introduction of a new banknote in 2023, they entered mass circulation only at the end of last year. But so far, every tenth ATM in the Russian Federation does not accept them, experts estimated. In Moscow, up to 25% of all devices may not recognize them. There are more different ATM brands here, and many cannot be converted to new banknotes due to sanctions. There is a way out — to update the software or change the old hardware. When the problem will be solved and how the market is struggling with such sanctions restrictions — in the Izvestia article.
Why don't ATMs accept new five thousand dollar bills
Some ATMs in Russia still do not accept the new five thousandth notes. Two eyewitnesses told Izvestia about this problem. One of them could not deposit money to the Alfa ATM, and the other could not deposit money to VTB.
Some ATMs in Russia now really do not accept new five-thousandth notes, the press service of Sovcombank said. Signals about such a problem are also seen in Novikom. They explained: this is due to the fact that ATM manufacturing companies that have been present on the market for the last two decades left the Russian Federation after the start of their development. Since then, they have not supported the application software and have not developed templates for new banknotes for Russia.
Polina Berseneva, Director of the Retail Product Development and Digital Channel Development Department at Ingosstrakh Bank, added that the latest version of the banknote recognition module is needed to accept the updated five thousandth banknotes.
The Bank of Russia receives isolated complaints about the operation of the equipment that accepts banknotes, the press service of the Central Bank told Izvestia. They added that ATMs issue new banknotes freely, without any restrictions. Most ATM's with the recirculation function accept them, while the rest are being set up.
The Central Bank presented new banknotes with a face value of 5,000 rubles back in October 2023. It was dedicated to Yekaterinburg. It was assumed that this money would be put into circulation gradually and would be treated on a par with the banknotes of the 1997 model.
The problem with accepting new-style banknotes in ATM has been clear since 2022, when the Central Bank introduced a new hundred-ruble note, said Fyodor Sidorov, founder of the School of Practical Investment. The fact is that the cash register equipment in Russia was 100% imported. Calculating machines and ATMs in Western software did not have time to learn how to recognize a new banknote.
This is why there is a significant time lag between the presentation of new banknotes and their actual mass entry into circulation. For a hundred-ruble note and a five-thousandth bill, this began to happen only in the fall of 2024, the expert recalled.
Despite the postponement of the issue of banknotes, credit institutions did not have time to prepare all the equipment. Currently, about 15% of cash registers in Russia may not accept new five-thousand-dollar bills, estimated Alexey Voylukov, MBA professor of business practice in digital finance at RANEPA, former vice president of the Association of Banks of Russia. According to him, in Moscow this figure can reach up to a quarter, because equipment from a wide variety of manufacturers was used in the capital.
At the same time, the impossibility of accepting five-thousand-dollar bills for Russians is more sensitive than, for example, hundred-ruble notes, emphasized Fyodor Sidorov from the School of Practical Investment. Some people prefer to pay off loans through an ATM. And the inability to top up an account on time is a huge problem for citizens, which threatens to ruin their credit history, the expert explained.
When will sanctions stop affecting Russian ATMs
The willingness to accept new banknotes now strongly depends on the specific bank and brand, Alexey Voylukov noted.
Especially in the market there is a problem with Diebold Nixdorf ATMs, said Sergey Gubin, head of the BBR Bank's processing support sector. According to him, the situation was fixed due to the fact that a third-party organization engaged in ATM maintenance developed and certified a solution for this brand of equipment in the Central Bank at the beginning of last year. Now banks can use it to modify equipment.
Now quite a lot of ATMs can already accept new banknotes, Alexey Voylukov noted. This is probably why the Central Bank decided not to wait any longer and gradually began to introduce updated banknotes. They began to be issued in those regions where the equipment is more prepared.
In Moscow, the first five thousandth banknotes of the new type began to be found at the beginning of this year, their turnover is not yet widespread, said the deputy chairman of the board of Dom Bank.Russian Federation" Nikolay Kozak.
In addition, banks are now actively working on accepting new banknotes, so the problem can be solved in three to six months, according to Alexey Tarapovsky, founder of Anderida Financial Group.
However, Fyodor Sidorov from the School of Practical Investment is confident that the adaptation will not be quick. Financial organizations recognize the difficulty with ATMs. The problem is partially solved thanks to the development of new software by Goznak, which already allows the technique to be flashed to accept new banknotes. According to Arkady Tracchuk, the head of Goznak, 60% of the equipment in Russia can be improved in this way.
Banks are working to replace ATMs that cannot be adapted due to the refusal of individual foreign manufacturers to provide service support, the press service of the Central Bank noted.
Sber has updated the software on its ATMs, thanks to which 99% of devices accept the five thousandth and one hundred ruble banknotes of a new sample, the press service of the credit institution said. A little less than 1% is accounted for by ATMs of Western vendors, which Sberbank will decommission by the end of the year.
More than 85% of T-Bank ATMs located in the Russian Federation are ready to accept and issue new five thousandth notes, the credit institution said. They plan to replace the rest with new models.
The only solution is to replace such old ATM's with devices from manufacturers that continue to support them, Sovcombank's press service agreed.
Currently, there are several ATM manufacturers in the Russian Federation that manufacture devices using Chinese and Korean parts, said Vadim Kulik, Deputy President and Chairman of the Board of VTB.
The use of domestic devices solves the problem of recognizing new-style banknotes, agreed Nikolai Kozak from Dom.RF Bank. He added that the credit institution has been installing Russian-made ATMs in new-format offices since last year.
When other updated banknotes are introduced into mass circulation, the problem of their acceptance into ATM may recur, Alexey Voylukov believes. But over time, the fleet is updated, and if you can still access the software of foreign devices, then it will be much easier to download a new image of the bill again.
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