SBI plans 15,000 ATMs in 3 years

State Bank of India is planning to open 10,000-15,000 automated teller machines over the next three years, said S K Sehgal, general manager, information technology, on the sidelines of a banking technology seminar here today.

"On an average, our ATMs are registering 300 hits per day per ATM, as compared with 130-140 hits per day a couple of years back," Sehgal said.

"In peak days, about 25 mln transactions take place through ATM counters while the average is 16-18 mln daily," he said, justifying the need for increasing the number of ATMs.

At present, the country's largest bank has 7,200 ATMs across the country. It has identified 2,700 spots to set up the new ATMs.

Recently, ICICI Bank, the country's second largest lender, received the Reserve Bank of India's approval to open more than 1,200 ATMs and 425 new branches in the country. "We have also tied up with Indian Railways to set up ATMs in 700 railway stations," Sehgal said.

He said the cost of the machine has come down drastically to Rs 4,00,000 from Rs 10,00,000 a few years ago.

On implementation of core banking solutions in its branches, Sehgal said aout 11,000 branches of the SBI group are operating on core banking solution platform, covering 93% of the business.

The bank aims to implement core banking solutions in all its branches by the end of the current financial year.