Public sector bank have no plan to shut down 50% of ATMs by March 2019: Finance Ministry

2.21 lakh ATMs are deployed in India as on 30 September 2018

The finance ministry has clarified that the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) do not have any plan to shut down nearly 50% of ATMs by March 2019. The Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi) had earlier warned that ATM service providers may be forced to close down almost half of ATMs by March 2019 due to unviability of operations.

As per the finance ministry, as reported by the Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), Small Finance Banks (SFB), Payment Banks (PBs) and White Label ATM Operators (WLAOs), 2.21 lakh ATMs are deployed in the country as on 30 September 2018.

As informed by RBI, out of total 2.21 lakh ATMs deployed in the country as on 30 September 2018, only 15626 ATMs are deployed by WLAOs, while rest are operated by banks. Further, in urban and rural regions, the total number of ATMs deployed by SCBs, SFBs and PBs is 90,956 end September 2018, whereas 8,623 ATMs are deployed by WLAOs. For a customer, there is no difference between using a normal ATM and a WLA. These ATMs are interoperable and cards of all banks can be used at both types of ATMs.

Apart from ATMs, banking services across the country are provided through bank branches, inter-operable Business Correspondents (BCs) with micro-ATMs etc. Further, mobile banking services and various digital modes of banking facilities are also available in India.

Under Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), as informed by banks, all villages were mapped into 1.59 lakh Sub-service Areas (SSAs) of 1,000 to 1,500 households each. Out of these SSAs, 0.33 lakh are served by bank branches and 1.26 lakh are served by BCs.

As informed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), no comparable data is available with them regarding India beings among the countries having lowest Automated Teller Machine (ATM) penetration globally.

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