Ecuadorians withdraw an average of $ 103 a month through ATMs

To pay for lunch or ice cream, or to buy sweets and drinks in a store or shopping center, Ecuadorians quickly resort to withdraw money from ATMs from the country.

According to data from the Superintendency of Banks, until October, they are $ 103 the average monthly cash withdrawals a person makes nationwide. Until that month, also, it was recorded that $ 15,715 million in total were withdrawn through ATMs and ATMs plus throughout the country.

Leaving term savings increases the interest received from $ 3 to $ 30 per month if the amount is high

The monthly average data, however, varies according to different elements. For example, if it is broken down by cantons, in Guayaquil, a person withdraws from an ATM $ 104 a month and in Samborondón $ 111. While in Quito the average is $ 91 and in Cuenca, $ 111.

Likewise, there are changes if the financial entity is taken into consideration. According to the Super Banks, Pichincha Bank adds an average amount of monthly withdrawals as of October of $ 113; Banco Guayaquil, $ 80; Y Banco ProCredit, of $ 232. This last entity is the one that registers the highest amount, followed by Banco Bolivariano and Banco de Machala.

According Sonia Zurita, professor of Finance and Investment Evaluation at the Business School of the Escuela Politécnica del Litoral (Espae-Espol), This variation is explained by the fact that in smaller banks, where there is a profile of clients with lower savings, there is a greater inclination towards cash withdrawals.

“They are clients with a much more marked cash culture, who do not make use of mobile payment applications, digital banking or credit cards, so they access more withdrawals at ATMs”said the professor, who added that another factor that causes a higher amount in small banks is the number of ATMs that exist by these entities.

Ecuadorians allocate savings not only to debts, but also to their security

This means, Zurita explains, that there are users who choose to remove the maximum amount per transaction from those smaller banks, and then not having to look for ATMs of the same entity which, in many cases, are scarce.

In the first ten months of the year it is also observed that there are months in which there are peaks in the amount of the transaction by ATMs. For example, between January and October, the months of March and April have an additional variation of $ 2 and $ 6 with respect to the average of $ 103.

For Zurita, these upward trends in certain months are due, in part, to at the beginning of classes and the end of the holidays in the Costa region. Another additional factor, for analyst David Castellanos, is that profits are canceled in those months. One element to consider, explains Castellanos, is that the average amount of withdrawals is not usually in a single transaction. “People are used to withdrawing $ 10 or $ 20 a week.” (I)