Pakistan has 11 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) per 100,000 people As per official statistics released by the World Bank (WB) on the global indicators of growth.
Other definitive entries on the global ATM index for 2020 included South Korea (267), Israel (133), China (96), UAE (61), India (21), Bangladesh (9), and Afghanistan (2).
According to another report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the same index, mobile money has gained traction in South Asia, which is experiencing an average annual growth rate of 52 percent in the number of Mobile money transactions per 1,000 adults—the highest across all regions. The IMF report adds,
“Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan are a few examples of countries experiencing high mobile money growth in Asia”
Here’s how some other countries compare with Pakistan:
ATMs per 100,000 people
🇰🇷S Korea: 267
🇨🇦Canada: 214
🇺🇸US: 174
🇷🇺Russia: 165
🇮🇱Israel: 133
🇩🇪Germany: 130
🇬🇧UK: 110
🇧🇷Brazil: 102
🇫🇷France: 98
🇨🇳China: 96
🇹🇷Turkey: 84
🇦🇪UAE: 61
🇨🇴Colombia: 41
🇮🇳India: 21
🇳🇬Nigeria: 17
🇵🇰Pakistan: 11
🇧🇩Bangladesh: 9
🇦🇫Afghanistan: 2(WorldBank)
— World Index (@theworldindex) February 23, 2021
Despite the availability of excessive mobile money in the market, especially in Pakistan, having such a low score on the ATM-to-population ratio is a sign of a cash-strapped economy, where banks are struggling to maintain a certain level of holdable cashflow.