Would You Like Yuan With That?

Fast city living in China stepped up a gear last week with Citibank launching the first drive-through ATM in Beijing’s Chaoyang district in the city’s north east.

Intrigued by the announcement, this dragondata staffer set off up the fourth ring road from the group’s head office, also in Chaoyang district in the eastern part of the city, to investigate.

For a city where driving a car is rapidly becoming an inconvenience, drivers can now avoid the headache of finding parking or stopping by passing though the American financial giant’s new outlet.

Unfortunately for many of Beijing’s 16 million exhausted and exhaust fume weary residents, the ATM only accepts international cards.

Foreign banks are not yet allowed to issue cards domestically.

It seems the exercise is more of a publicity stunt for Citibank, which now has a total of 95 ATMs in China, including both in-branch and offsite.

After taking a number of shots of the facility and looking around the area, which has a high proportion of non-Chinese living in the vicinity, not one person used the new ATM.

Fair enough the group did openly say the new ATM was an “experiment” however it or other outlets are unlikely to assist it growing any presence in the domestic market – only the China Banking Regulatory Commission can facilitate this by allowing domestic bank card holders to use such facilities.

Citibank has eight drive-through ATMs across Asia.