All banks send the POS and merchant information they allocate to their customers to BKM's MIV (Central Merchant Database) and MPV (Central POS Database) systems, and these are then reported by BKM. The notifications sent to BKM include the location details of POS terminals and merchants (address, province, district, etc.). This makes it easy to produce reports broken down by province, district, and bank. BKM generally reports figures on a per-bank basis.
Although a province-level breakdown is not usually published, we have listed below the figures for the 20 provinces with the highest ATM, POS, and merchant counts.
What conclusions can we draw from province-level ATM, POS, and merchant data?
- How the population of that province compares to other provinces
- How the number of stores in that province compares to other provinces
- How closely ATM, POS, and merchant counts track one another
- How frequently ATMs, POS terminals, and merchants are used
- That ATM and POS usage is higher in tourist regions and along the Mediterranean and Aegean coastlines
- That POS usage increases in regions with higher trade volume
- That approximately 95% of merchants have only a single POS terminal
- That in some provinces the number of merchants exceeds the number of POS terminals, which tells us that merchants have their POS terminals deactivated to avoid paying POS fees, while leaving their merchant registration open with the bank.
So what should banks do about this?
- To produce cleaner reporting that reflects reality, banks should close merchant accounts that no longer have an active POS terminal.
- They should focus more POS and merchant marketing efforts on provinces with higher trade volume.
- When installing ATMs and POS terminals, they should carry out the necessary feasibility studies for each location and take care to install them only in the most suitable locations.
In conclusion:
What you see below is not just numbers. These numbers tell us a great deal. Here's hoping we read, understand, and interpret them correctly...
