About 1.13 lakh of the 2.38 lakh automated teller machines (ATMs) in the country will have to shut down by 2019 as operations will not remain viable, the Confederation of ATM Industry (CATMi), the apex body of the domestic ATM industry said on Wednesday.
The figure includes about one lakh off-site ATMs and a little over 15,000 white label ATMs. “A large number of ATMs in non-urban locations may be shut down due to unviability of operations,” CATMi said.
Guidelines for upgrade
The industry body said the forced closure was on account of unviability of operations brought about by recent regulatory guidelines for ATMs hardware and software upgrades, recent mandates on cash management standards, and the ‘Cassette Swap’ method of loading cash. If a large number of ATMs had to stop operations, then the financial inclusion programme would be severely impacted as millions of beneficiaries under the government’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme, who withdrew subsidies through ATMs, may find their neighbourhood ATM shut, CATMi said.
CATMi said that its members were already reeling under the financial impact caused by huge losses during and post-demonetisation as cash supply was impacted and remained inconsistent for months. Unless banks stepped in to bear the additional cost of compliance, ATMs would have to shut down, it added.
