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As many as 18,328 new automated teller machines (ATMs) were deployed in India during 2012-13, taking the total number to 114,014, a 19.15 per cent growth, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s trend and progress of banking in India report, 2012-13, released on Thursday.
The report noted private sector banks’ share in total ATMs grew marginally from 37.7 per cent in March 2012 to 38 per cent in March. The central bank said with white-label ATMs (those owned and operated by non-bank entities) expected to take off, the segment is set to see a lot of action. RBI noted there has been tremendous growth in off-site ATMs (machines set up on a stand-alone basis).
The report said while ATMs provide basic banking services to customers in a faster and cost-efficient manner, off-site ATMs are more cost-efficient because they operate without the paraphernalia of a bank branch.
"Over the years, the relative growth in off-site ATMs has been much more than that of on-site ATMs. As a result, by 2012-13, off-site ATMs accounted for more than half the total ATMs in the country," said the report.
The regulator had earlier introduced the policy initiative to enable non-bank entities to set up and operate WLAs. With this, RBI said the proportion of off-site ATMs is likely to grow further. So far, of the 18 entities that have approached RBI for setting up WLAs, 12 have been granted in-principle authorisation; of these, one has been issued the Certificate of Authorisation. The first WLA became operational in Thane district in Maharashtra in June this year.
With respect to the other technological developments in scheduled commercial banks , RBI said there has been an increased efficiency of cheque-based transactions under the cheque truncation system.
CTS improves the pace of clearance as it does not involve end-to-end physical movement of cheques. Following the introduction of this system, there has been a quantum jump in the number of cheques processed through this system, particularly at New Delhi and Chennai.
RBI said debit cards are a more popular mode of electronic money than credit cards. "While public sector banks have been front-runners in issuing debit cards, new private sector banks continue to lead in the number of credit cards issued."
The central bank said there has been sustained growth in both the volume and value of all types of electronic transactions of SCBs in general and debit transactions in particular in recent years, a trend that continued in 2012-13. Both RTGS (real-time gross settlement), which is meant for transactions of Rs 2,00,000 and above, and NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer, a retail system) consistently posted double-digit growth in terms of the volume of transactions routed through these systems.
The report also noted that India stands out globally in terms of usage of mobile phones as a mode of payment with data from 2011 showing use of mobile phone to pay bills is much higher in India, compared to the rest of the world.
However, RBI opined that there is room for improvement in electronic modes of payment. "Notwithstanding the growth of various electronic modes of payment in India, it still has a long way to go in terms of achieving the high levels of penetration of such modes across the world, particularly in high-income countries.
There has been further progress in data transfer from banks to the regulator under the Automated Data Flow Project (ADF), said RBI. The ADF project was initiated by RBI to automate flow of data from banks’ internal systems to a centralised environment and then to the regulator in an accurate and timely manner without manual intervention. There is continued progress under ADF and as at end-June 2013, about 80 per cent of the returns of a majority of the banks had been brought under this system.
